Development of a long range wireless sensor platform

Wireless Sensor Networks have emerged as an exciting field in recent years. There have been numerous studies on how to improve and standardise different aspects of wireless sensor networks. This paper aims to develop a wireless sensor network suitable for environmental monitoring applications. More specifically this paper aims to address the limited communication range of the existing wireless sensor technology. In order to achieve the desired objectives, we have initially developed a hardware platform and then integrated the hardware with a long range RF radio module to achieve the goals. The system is further enhanced with mesh networking capabilities to increase the communication range and overall reliability of the network. The developed wireless sensor network is composed of sensors, microcontroller, RF radio module, antenna and expansion connectors for additional sensors and peripheral devices. The developed wireless sensor network has been rigorously tested under three different scenarios to ensure the correct operation of the mesh network, communication range and effect of environmental obstacles such as vegetation and trees. The developed wireless sensor network has been proven to be a suitable platform for environmental monitoring applications and the modular design has made it very easy to optimise it for different applications

Superfast broadband: the future is in your hands

The National Broadband Network (NBN) will deliver a comprehensive upgrade to Australia’s national broadband infrastructure. This will be of profound importance to Australia’s long-term productivity agenda. This paper, commissioned by Vodafone Australia, assesses new opportunities for the NBN. In particular, we examine how the growth of mobile services has transformed the telecommunications industry and how NBN has the potential to dramatically improve mobile telecommunications. It makes the case that the NBN, far from becoming redundant due to the explosion in mobile internet access, is in fact crucial to delivering better mobile services to both regional and urban areas without any significant increases in cost. It argues that the recent development of small mobile base stations (able to be placed on lampposts for example), connected to the NBN, can significantly increase and improve mobile coverage in both urban and regional Australia. This has the potential to radically reshape Australia’s economic and social future

Application framework for wireless sensor networks [thesis]

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are based on innovative technologies that had revolutionized the methods in which we interact with the environment; i.e., through sensing the physical (e.g., fire motion, contact) and chemical (e.g., molecular concentration) properties of the natural surroundings. The hardware in which utilized by WSNs is rapidly evolving into sophisticated platforms that seamlessly integrate with different vendors and protocols (plug-n-play). In this thesis, we propose a WSN framework which provides assistance with monitoring environmental conditions; we focus on three main applications which include: a. Air-quality monitoring, b. Gas-leak detection, and c. Fire sensing. The framework involves four specifications: 1. Over the air programming (OTAP), 2. Network interconnections, 3. Sensors manageability, and 4. Alarm signaling. Their aim is to enhance the internetwork relations between the WSNs and the outside-world (i.e., main users, clients, or audience); by creating a medium in which devices efficiently communicate, independent of location or infrastructure (e.g., Internet), in order to exchange data among networked-objects and their users. Therefore, we propose a WSN-over-IP architecture which provides several renowned services of the Internet; the major functionalities include: live-data streaming (real-time), e-mailing, cloud storage (external servers), and network technologies (e.g., LAN or WLAN). WSNs themselves operate independently of the Internet; i.e., their operation involve unique protocols and specific hardware requirements which are incompatible with common network platforms (e.g., within home network infrastructure). Hybrid technologies are those which support multiple data-communication protocols within a single device; their main capabilities involve seamless integration and interoperability of different hardware vendors. We propose an overall architecture based on hybrid communication technology in which data is transmitted using three types of protocols: 802.11 (Wi-Fi), 802.15.4 and Digimesh (WSN)

Monitoring of Illegal Removal of Road Barricades Using Intelligent Transportation Systems in Connected and Non-Connected Environments

69A3551747117Illegal removal of road barricades without notice of road emergency officials and road users has resulted in fatalities, injuries, and property damages. It is only after an incident has occurred or someone noticed the removal and alerted the authorities for the barricade to be placed back at its intended location. Due to this event, traditional barricades must be equipped with mechanisms to alert emergency officials and warn road users of impending danger. This research utilized the Global Positioning System (GPS) module, and Radio Frequency (RF) modules to detect barricade movements, and alert emergency officials and road users. The barricade movements were estimated from the haversine distance formula, corrected for errors, and then compared with the distance threshold value for the road users within a geofenced area to be alerted. The geofenced area radius was estimated to be 1.04 miles from the barricade location using the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), National Safety Council (NSC), and TransGuide ITS manuals. The non-parametric bootstrapping method was used to estimate the GPS position error to 10.5 feet and corrected the measured distances. Experimental data of the system from a clear sunny day shows that low-cost GPS modules have the best response to barricade movements compared to a cloudy day where movements can\u2019t be explained easily. This system can communicate with Road-Side Units (RSUs) and On-Board Units (OBUs) and is expected to warn road users and alert emergency officials

Technological Delivery Methods of Community Safety Messages

Community safety messages are designed to help educate the public. This project, sponsored by the Australasian Fire Authorities Council was designed to help improve safety message delivery to young people, age 15 to 29, by making use of the newest technologies available. The team used interviews, focus groups, and a survey to gather information about communication technology and safety messages. The findings and the background research enabled the formation of recommendations regarding the future technological delivery methods that will be most effective for the delivery of fire safety messages

Visualization and analysis of mobile phone location data

This thesis investigates the use of passively-collected data from mobile phone networks to map population movements. In Australia, as in most other developed countries, nearly all teenagers and working-age adults carry a mobile phone. When these phones communicate with the network they reveal their location to be within the coverage area of the base station antenna that received their transmission. This location data, if it were collected, could be used to derive movement information for most of the population. Such information does not currently exist. The thesis begins by investigating what information is available within a mobile phone network during normal operations. It looks at how difficult it is to extract this information, how frequently it is generated, and the spatial accuracy when it is used to locate a mobile handset. A new technique is described for estimating the location of a handset within the coverage area of a directional antenna. The theoretical investigation is supplemented by the collection of field data with a GPSequipped smart phone running custom software; by simulating the movement of Australia's mobile phones using census data and a database of base station antenna locations; and by analyzing the mobile phone billing records of an individual who elected to make his data public. Having researched the accuracy and availability of mobile phone location data, the thesis then looks at the feasibility of using it for various applications. These applications include sending alerts to people in the path of a tsunami; predicting the utilization of a new public transport route; tracking the movements of fugitives and missing persons; measuring internal migration within Australia; identifying abnormal population concentrations in real-time; and measuring the population of a region throughout the day/year. Finally, the thesis looks at techniques for visualizing the data. Existing techniques are explored, and a new one is proposed that makes use of clustered velocity vectors. This new approach can display the location, quantity, speed, and direction of large numbers of people at a point in time, and do so efficiently in terms of computational speed. The thesis concludes by summarizing the potential applications of mobile phone location data and suggesting areas of further research

The impact of bushfires on water quality

Population growth in urban areas leads to a higher demand in water use. Quality of water is an important factor not only from an aesthetic view, but also for ecological health purposes. This paper presented research that is designed to develop a spatial approach to support the planning of the water quality in the areas subjected to bushfires, using a case study from state of Victoria. In particular, this research involved the implementation of a hydrological model in order to predict the river water quality, to assist in the decision-making process. The impact of bushfires on water quality can be highly variable for the most of the individual water quality parametres. This variability is caused by a number of landscape influences and climatic factors, most notably rainfall. High magnitude and intense rainfall events soon after fire generate the largest impacts on water quality and sometimes trigger extreme erosion events. There are many important water quality parameters that must be taken into account when the water is delivered to the population. For some of the water quality parameters there is very little information available, which makes it difficult to draw conclusions about bushfire impacts. The monitoring campaigns are very expensive, and better options are the modeling tools. The model used in this research is eWater, a conceptual, semi-distributed model, which applies the flow accumulation principles. eWater Source - Australia's National Hydrological Modelling Platform (NHMP) – is developed by eWater CRC, Australia. It is designed to simulate all aspects of water resource systems to support integrated planning, operations and governance from urban, catchment to river basin scales including human and ecological influences. The catchment analyzed can be divided into sub-catchments and functional units. The model integrates rainfall runoff, constituent generation and filter models, which are parameterized. The user must find the best set of parameters that is suitable for that catchment. After calibration and validation, the model can be used in the same catchment for any period of time, and it will be able to predict the pollution levels in the catchment, with a good accuracy. Also, a user can follow the same steps, to calibrate the model for any other catchment. This method is time consuming, but it doesn’t require many input data.The fires and the rain are classified in 3 classes each. Then, the landuse, the burnt areas and the areas with rain are combined and parameterized separately. The outputs from the developed model are good correlated with the measured data, and show higher concentrations of suspended sediment and nutrients after bushfire followed by rain. To improve the model performance, the measured water quality data must be daily data with a better accuracy