A critical analysis of research potential, challenges and future directives in industrial wireless sensor networks

In recent years, Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSNs) have emerged as an important research theme with applications spanning a wide range of industries including automation, monitoring, process control, feedback systems and automotive. Wide scope of IWSNs applications ranging from small production units, large oil and gas industries to nuclear fission control, enables a fast-paced research in this field. Though IWSNs offer advantages of low cost, flexibility, scalability, self-healing, easy deployment and reformation, yet they pose certain limitations on available potential and introduce challenges on multiple fronts due to their susceptibility to highly complex and uncertain industrial environments. In this paper a detailed discussion on design objectives, challenges and solutions, for IWSNs, are presented. A careful evaluation of industrial systems, deadlines and possible hazards in industrial atmosphere are discussed. The paper also presents a thorough review of the existing standards and industrial protocols and gives a critical evaluation of potential of these standards and protocols along with a detailed discussion on available hardware platforms, specific industrial energy harvesting techniques and their capabilities. The paper lists main service providers for IWSNs solutions and gives insight of future trends and research gaps in the field of IWSNs

Performance Analysis of Multiple Access Techniques for LTE system under Symbol Error Rate (SER) Calculation

In the recent years, so many technologies in multiple access trends have influenced the field of Wireless Sensor Networks in significant ways. Various trends are readily available technology of ubiquitous wireless sensor networks as well as wireless communication networks and progress in the development of two multiple access techniques are compared in this scenario: the OFDMA and SC-FDMA. The OFDMA and SC-FDMA transceivers are modeled and simulated considering both the interleaved and localized subcarriers mapping schemes. WSNs have the potentiality to connect the physical world with the virtual world by forming a network of sensor nodes. To prolong the networklsquo;s hop in terms of single and two hop using both techniques should be used in the sensor nodes. The minimization of computing and storage platforms as well as the development of novel micro sensors and sensor materials with high reliability force encourages technology in research on WSN. In this paper, we will proposed the field of multipath routing in wireless sensor networks, and mainly focus on the technology of SER of WSNs

Proactive Highly Ambulatory Sensor Routing (PHASeR) protocol for mobile wireless sensor networks

This paper presents a novel multihop routing protocol for mobile wireless sensor networks called PHASeR (Proactive Highly Ambulatory Sensor Routing). The proposed protocol uses a simple hop-count metric to enable the dynamic and robust routing of data towards the sink in mobile environments. It is motivated by the application of radiation mapping by unmanned vehicles, which requires the reliable and timely delivery of regular measurements to the sink. PHASeR maintains a gradient metric in mobile environments by using a global TDMA MAC layer. It also uses the technique of blind forwarding to pass messages through the network in a multipath manner. PHASeR is analysed mathematically based on packet delivery ratio, average packet delay, throughput and overhead. It is then simulated with varying mobility, scalability and traffic loads. The protocol gives good results over all measures, which suggests that it may also be suitable for a wider array of emerging applications

A Comprehensive Analysis of Literature Reported Mac and Phy Enhancements of Zigbee and its Alliances

Wireless communication is one of the most required technologies by the common man. The strength of this technology is rigorously progressing towards several novel directions in establishing personal wireless networks mounted over on low power consuming systems. The cutting-edge communication technologies like bluetooth, WIFI and ZigBee significantly play a prime role to cater the basic needs of any individual. ZigBee is one such evolutionary technology steadily getting its popularity in establishing personal wireless networks which is built on small and low-power digital radios. Zigbee defines the physical and MAC layers built on IEEE standard. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of literature reported MAC and PHY enhancements of ZigBee and its contemporary technologies with respect to performance, power consumption, scheduling, resource management and timing and address binding. The work also discusses on the areas of ZigBee MAC and PHY towards their design for specific applications

A smart sensor grid to enhance irrigation techniques in Jordan using a novel event-based routing protocol

Due to rapid changes in climatic conditions worldwide, environmental monitoring has become one of the greatest concerns in the last few years. With the advancement in wireless sensing technology, it is now possible to monitor and track fine-grained changes in harsh outdoor environments. Wireless sensor networks (WSN) provide very high quality and accurate analysis for monitoring of both spatial and temporal data, thus providing the opportunity to monitor harsh outdoor environments. However, to deploy and maintain a WSN in such harsh environments is a great challenge for researchers and scientists. Several routing protocols exist for data dissemination and power management but they suffer from various disadvantages. In our case study, there are very limited water resources in the Middle East, hence soil moisture measurements must be taken into account to manage irrigation and аgriculturаl projects. In order to meet these challenges, a Smart Grid that supports a robust, reactive, event-based routing protocol is developed using Ad hoc On-Demand Multipath Distance Vector (AOMDV) as a starting point. A prototype WSN network of 5 nodes is built and a detailed simulation of 30 nodes is also developed to test the scalability of the new system

Energy-aware routing protocols in wireless sensor networks

Saving energy and increasing network lifetime are significant challenges in the field of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Energy-aware routing protocols have been introduced for WSNs to overcome limitations of WSN including limited power resources and difficulties renewing or recharging sensor nodes batteries. Furthermore, the potentially inhospitable environments of sensor locations, in some applications, such as the bottom of the ocean, or inside tornados also have to be considered. ZigBee is one of the latest communication standards designed for WSNs based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The ZigBee standard supports two routing protocols, the Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV), and the cluster-tree routing protocols. These protocols are implemented to establish the network, form clusters, and transfer data between the nodes. The AODV and the cluster-tree routing protocols are two of the most efficient routing protocols in terms of reducing the control message overhead, reducing the bandwidth usage in the network, and reducing the power consumption of wireless sensor nodes compared to other routing protocols. However, neither of these protocols considers the energy level or the energy consumption rate of the wireless sensor nodes during the establishment or routing processes. (Continues...)