Architectures for Wireless Sensor Networks

Various architectures have been developed for wireless sensor networks. Many of them leave to the programmer important concepts as the way in which the inter-task communication and dynamic reconfigurations are addressed. In this paper we describe the characteristics of a new architecture we proposed - the data-centric architecture. This architecture offers an easy way of structuring the applications designed for wireless sensor nodes that confers them superior performances

Architectures for wireless sensor networks

The vision of ubiquitous computing requires the development of devices and technologies that can be pervasive without being intrusive. The basic component of such a smart environment will be a small node with sensing and wireless communications capabilities, able to organize itself flexibly into a network for data collection and delivery. Building such a sensor network presents many significant challenges, especially at the architectural, protocol, and operating system level. Although sensor nodes might be equipped with a power supply or energy scavenging means and an embedded processor that makes them autonomous and self-aware, their functionality and capabilities will be very limited. Therefore, collaboration between nodes is essential to deliver smart services in a ubiquitous setting. New algorithms for networking and distributed collaboration need to be developed. These algorithms will be the key for building self-organizing and collaborative sensor networks that show emergent behavior and can operate in a challenging environment where nodes move, fail, and energy is a scarce resource. The question that rises is how to organize the internal software and hardware components in a manner thatwill allowthem towork properly and be able to adapt dynamically to new environments, requirements, and applications. At the same time the solution should be general enough to be suited for as many applications as possible. Architecture definition also includes, at the higher level, a global view of the whole network. The topology, placement of base stations, beacons, etc. is also of interest. In this chapter, we will present and analyze some of the characteristics of the architectures for wireless sensor networks. Then, we will propose a new dataflow-based architecture that allows, as a new feature, the dynamic reconfiguration of the sensor nodes software at runtime

Supporting protocol-independent adaptive QoS in wireless sensor networks

Next-generation wireless sensor networks will be used for many diverse applications in time-varying network/environment conditions and on heterogeneous sensor nodes. Although Quality of Service (QoS) has been ignored for a long time in the research on wireless sensor networks, it becomes inevitably important when we want to deliver an adequate service with minimal efforts under challenging network conditions. Until now, there exist no general-purpose QoS architectures for wireless sensor networks and the main QoS efforts were done in terms of individual protocol optimizations. In this paper we present a novel layerless QoS architecture that supports protocol-independent QoS and that can adapt itself to time-varying application, network and node conditions. We have implemented this QoS architecture in TinyOS on TmoteSky sensor nodes and we have shown that the system is able to support protocol-independent QoS in a real life office environment

Medium Access Control for Wireless Sensor Networks based on Impulse Radio Ultra Wideband

This paper describes a detailed performance evaluation of distributed Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks based on Impulse Radio Ultra Wideband (IR-UWB) Physical layer (PHY). Two main classes of Medium Access Control protocol have been considered: Slotted and UnSlotted with reliability. The reliability is based on Automatic Repeat ReQuest (ARQ). The performance evaluation is performed using a complete Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) simulator built on the Global Mobile Information System Simulator (GloMoSim). The optimal operating parameters are first discussed for IR-UWB in terms of slot size, retransmission delay and the number of retransmission, then a comparison between IR-UWB and other transmission techniques in terms of reliability latency and power efficiency

Top-Down Behavioral Modeling Methodology of a Piezoelectric Microgenerator For Integrated Power Harvesting Systems

In this study, we developed a top/down methodology for behavioral and structural modeling of multi-domain microsystems. Then, we validated this methodology through a study case : a piezoelectric microgenerator. We also proved the effectiveness of VHDL-AMS language not only for modeling in behavioral and structural levels but also in writing physical models that can predict the experimental results. Finally, we validated these models by presenting and discussing simulations results.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/16838

A priority based routing protocol for wireless sensor networks

Recently, the demands on wireless sensor networks have switched from low traffic rate and static topology to more challenging requirements in order to meet the rapid expansion of WSN into various domain applications. This paper proposes a seamless cross layer solution that integrates network layer and medium access control to accommodate some of the new challenges. This new solution allows routing paths being generated dynamically to meet the requirement of potential mobile nodes. Higher data throughput and flow control are part of the new demands required to be addressed urgently. The proposed solution integrates a priority based MAC to handle congestion and packet loss problems which commonly happened in WSN when an occurrence of event spread into wide are

Lightweight Synchronization Algorithm with Self-Calibration for Industrial LORA Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor and actuator networks are gaining momentum in the era of Industrial Internet of Things IIoT. The usage of the close-loop data from sensors in the manufacturing chain is extending the common monitoring scenario of the Wireless Sensors Networks WSN where data were just logged. In this paper we present an accurate timing synchronization for TDMA implemented on the state of art IoT radio, such as LoRa, that is a good solution in industrial environments for its high robustness. Experimental results show how it is possible to modulate the drift correction and keep the synchronization error within the requirements

Energy Harvesting Aspects of Wireless Sensor Networks: A Review

Energy harvesting is the process by which energy is derived from external sources e.g., solar power, thermal energy, wind energy, salinity gradients, and kinetic energy captured and stored for small, wireless autonomous devices, like those used in wearable electronics and wireless sensor networks.Energy harvesters provide a very small amount of power for low-energy electronics. The energy sourced from energy harvesters is present as ambient background and is free