Navigating Wireless Data Transmission Challenges in Smart Transportation: Technologies, Sensor Networks, and Real-World Applications

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) provide the foundation for the advancement of smart transportation systems (STS) to enable real-time monitoring, maximum traffic management, and improved urban mobility. WSNs make it possible to have permanent data exchange among infrastructure, cars, and control centers, offering support for intelligent transport solutions. However, the maintenance of consistent wireless data transfer in the networks is an enormous challenge from dynamic environmental conditions, increasing network density, and increasing application sophistication. Problematic phenomena such as network saturation, delay, interference, power constraints, and security risks can impair system performance and compromise safety-critical functions. They are fully addressed in this paper, and the full scope of recent technological advances to make reliable wireless communication available in transport environments is surveyed. It focuses on future tools and technologies like 5G and future 6G wireless communication, adaptive routing, and traffic prediction based on AI, low-latency edge computing, and blockchain technology for data reliability and secure identity management. It also focuses on adaptive communication protocols, low-power and long-distance wireless technologies like LoRaWAN, Zigbee, and BLE, and AI-based optimization techniques that enhance scalability, energy efficiency, and network resilience. Besides, the review integrates lessons gained in current deployments, like Singapore and London's smart traffic systems, South Korea and the Netherlands' intelligent highway initiatives, and autonomous vehicle platforms like Waymo and Tesla, all of which rely on high-speed wireless connectivity. A comparison of wireless communication standards utilized in smart transport is also presented to guide future technology adoption. The work highlights the need for scalable, secure, and energy-efficient WSNs to enable heterogeneous and dynamic transportation applications. Through overcoming long-standing transmission issues and tapping into recent advancements, WSNs can greatly improve the efficiency, security, and sustainability of urban mobility systems and thereby contribute toward the vision of intelligent and interconnected smart cities. Sensor networks (WSNs) are foundational to the development of smart transportation systems.