Model-based development for MAC protocols in industrial wireless sensor networks

Model-Driven Software Engineering (MDSE) is an approach for design and implementation of software applications, that can be applied across multiple domains. The advantages include rapid prototyping and implementation, along with reduction in errors induced by humans in the process, via automation. Wireless Sensor Actuator Networks (WSANs) rely on resource-constrained hardware and have platform-specific implementations. Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols in particular are mainly responsible for radio communication, the biggest consumer of energy, and are also responsible for Quality of Service (QoS). The design and development of protocols for WSAN could benefit from the use of MDSE. In this article, we use Coloured Petri Nets (CPN) for platform independent modeling of protocols, initial verification, and simulation. The PetriCode tool is used to generate platform-specific implementations for multiple platforms, including MiXiM for simulation and TinyOS for deployment. Further the generated code is analyzed via network simulations and real-world deployment test. Through the process of MDSE-based code generation and analysis, the protocol design is validated, verified and analyzed. We use the GinMAC protocol as a running example to illustrate the design and development life cycle.publishedVersionnivå

A Dual-Mode Adaptive MAC Protocol for Process Control in Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks

Doktorgradsavhandling ved Fakultet for teknologi og realfag, Universitetet i Agder, 2017Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consist of sensors and actuators operating together to provide monitoring and control services. These services are used in versatile applications ranging from environmental monitoring t oindustrial automation applications. Industrial Wireless Sensor Network (IWSN) is a sub domain of the WSN domain, focussing the industrial monitoring and automation applications. The IWSN domain differs from the generic WSN domains in terms of its requirements. General IWSN requirements include: energy efficiency and quality of service, and strict requirements are imposed on the quality of service expected by IWSN applications. Quality of service in particular relates to reliability, robustness, and predictability. Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols in an IWSN solution are responsible for managing radio communications, the main consumer of power in every IWSN element. With proper measures, MAC protocols can provide energy efficient solutions along with required quality of service for process control applications. The first goal of the thesis was to assess the possibility of creating a MAC protocol exploiting properties of the application domain, the process control domain. This resulted in the creation of the Dual-Mode Adaptive Medium Access Control Protocol (DMAMAC) which constitutes the main contribution of this thesis. The DMAMAC protocol is energy efficient,while preserving real-time requirements, and is robust to packet failure. This has been guaranteed by the thorough evaluation of the protocol via simulation, verification, and implementation with deployment testing. In parallel, we also investigated the possibility of using an alternative development approach for MAC protocols. Specifically, we have proposed a development approach based on MAC protocol model in CPN tools. The development approach consists of automatic code generation for the MiXiM simulation tool and the TinyOS platform. We used the related GinMAC protocol as a running example for the development approach. The generated code for MiXiM simulation platform and the TinyOS implementation platform are evaluated via simulation and deployment respectively. This results in a faster design to implementation time, and closely related protocol artifacts, improving on the traditional approach

Actas da 10ª Conferência sobre Redes de Computadores

Universidade do MinhoCCTCCentro AlgoritmiCisco SystemsIEEE Portugal Sectio

Cross layer based protocols for energy aware and critical data delivery related applications using wireless sensor networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have been an exciting topic in recent years. The services offered by a WSN can be classified into three major categories: monitoring, alerting, and information on demand. WSNs have been used for a variety of applications related to the environment (agriculture, water and forest fire detection), the military, buildings, health (elderly people and home monitoring), disaster relief, and area or industrial monitoring. In most WSNs tasks like processing the sensed data, making decisions and generating emergency messages are carried out by a remote server, hence the need for efficient means of transferring data across the network. Because of the range of applications and types of WSN there is a need for different kinds of MAC and routing protocols in order to guarantee delivery of data from the source nodes to the server (or sink). In order to minimize energy consumption and increase performance in areas such as reliability of data delivery, extensive research has been conducted and documented in the literature on designing energy efficient protocols for each individual layer. The most common way to conserve energy in WSNs involves using the MAC layer to put the transceiver and the processor of the sensor node into a low power, sleep state when they are not being used. Hence the energy wasted due to collisions, overhearing and idle listening is reduced. As a result of this strategy for saving energy, the routing protocols need new solutions that take into account the sleep state of some nodes, and which also enable the lifetime of the entire network to be increased by distributing energy usage between nodes over time. This could mean that a combined MAC and routing protocol could significantly improve WSNs because the interaction between the MAC and network layers lets nodes be active at the same time in order to deal with data transmission. In the research presented in this thesis, a cross-layer protocol based on MAC and routing protocols was designed in order to improve the capability of WSNs for a range of different applications. Simulation results, based on a range of realistic scenarios, show that these new protocols improve WSNs by reducing their energy consumption as well as enabling them to support mobile nodes, where necessary. A number of conference and journal papers have been published to disseminate these results for a range of applications

GINSENG: Performance Control in Wireless Sensor Networks

The goal of the GINSENG project is a performance- controlled sensor network suitable for time-critical applications like plant automation and control. Such sensor networks must monitor performance constantly and collect data in order to detect, diagnose and rectify problems. The GINSENG system contains a number of mechanisms used to collect, transport and analyse performance critical data. Performance data processing is carried out in a manner that ensures time-critical application data processing is not affected. In this paper we present the different performance debugging mechanisms included in the GINSENG system

A supporting infrastructure for Wireless Sensor Networks in Critical Industrial Environments

Tese de doutoramento no Programa de Doutoramento em Ciências e Tecnologias da Informação apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra.As Redes de Sensores Sem Fios (RSSFs) têm uma aplicabilidade muito elevada nas mais diversas áreas, como na indústria, nos sistemas militares, na saúde e nas casas inteligentes. No entanto, continuam a existir várias limitações que impedem que esta tecnologia tenha uma utilização extensiva. A fiabilidade é uma destas principais limitações que tem atrasado a adopção das RSSFs em ambientes industriais, principalmente quando sujeitos a elevadas interferências e ruídos. Por outro lado, a interoperabilidade é também um dos principais requisitos a cumprir nomeadamente com o avanço para o paradigma da Internet of Things. A determinação da localização dos nós, principalmente dos nós móveis, é, também ele, um requisito crítico em muitas aplicações. Esta tese de doutoramento propõe novas soluções para a integração e para a localização de RSSFs que operem em ambientes industriais e críticos. Como os nós sensores são, na maioria das vezes, instalados e deixados sem intervenção humana durante longos períodos de tempo, isto é, meses ou mesmo anos, é muito importante oferecer processos de comunicação fiável. No entanto, muitos problemas ocorrem durante a transmissão dos pacotes, nomeadamente devido a ruídos, interferências e perda de potência do sinal. A razão das interferências deve-se à existência de mais do que uma rede ou ao espalhamento espectral que ocorre em determinadas frequências. Este tipo de problemas é mais severo em ambientes dinâmicos nos quais novas fontes de ruído pode ser introduzidas em qualquer instante de tempo, nomeadamente com a chegadas de novos dispositivos ao meio. Consequentemente, é necessário que as RSSFs tenham a capacidade de lidar com as limitações e as falhas nos processos de comunicação. O protocolo Dynamic MAC (DunMAC) proposto nesta dissertação utiliza técnicas de rádio cognitivo (CR) para que a RSSF se adapte, de forma dinâmica, a ambientes instáveis e ruidosos através da selecção automática do melhor canal durante o período de operação. As RSSFs não podem operar em isolação completa do meio, e necessitam de ser monitoradas e controladas por aplicações externas. Apesar de ser possível adicionar a pilha protocolar IP aos nós sensores, este procedimento não é adequado para muitas aplicações. Para estes casos, os modelos baseados em gateway ou proxies continuam a apresentar-se preferíveis para o processo de integração. Um dos desafios existentes para estes processos de integração é a sua adaptabilidade, isto é, a capacidade da gateway ou do proxy poder ser reutilizado sem alterações por outras aplicações. A razão desta limitação deve-se aos consumidores finais dos dados serem aplicações e não seres humanos. Logo, é difícil ou mesmo impossível criar normas para as estruturas de dados dada a infinidade de diferentes formatos. É então desejável encontrar uma solução que permita uma integração transparente de diferentes RSSFs e aplicações. A linguagem Sensor Traffic Description Language (STDL) proposta nesta dissertação propõe uma solução para esta integração através de gateways e proxies flexíveis e adaptados à diversidade de aplicações, e sem recorrer à reprogramação. O conhecimento da posição dos nós sensores é, também ele, crítico em muitas aplicações industriais como no controlo da deslocação dos objectos ou trabalhadores. Para além do mais, a maioria dos valores recolhidos dos sensores só são úteis quando acompanhados pelo conhecimento do local onde esses valores foram recolhidos. O Global Positioning Systems (GPS) é a mais conhecida solução para a determinação da localização. No entanto, o recurso ao GPS em cada nó sensor continua a ser energeticamente ineficiente e impraticável devido aos custos associados. Para além disso, os sistemas GPS não são apropriados para ambientes in-door. Este trabalho de doutoramento propõe-se actuar nestas áreas. Em particular, é proposto, implementado e avaliado o protocolo DynMAC para oferecer fiabilidade às RSSFs. Para a segunda temática, a linguagem STDL e o seu motor são propostos para suportar a integração de ambientes heterogéneos de RSSFs e aplicações. As soluções propostas não requerem reprogramação e suportam também serviços de localização nas RSSFs. Diferentes métodos de localização foram avaliados para estimar a localização dos nós. Assim, com estes métodos as RSSFs podem ser usadas como componentes para integrar e suportar a Futura Internet. Todas as soluções propostas nesta tese foram implementadas e validadas tanto em simulação com em plataformas práticas, laboratoriais e industriais.The Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) has a countless number of applications in almost all of the fields including military, industrial, healthcare, and smart home environments. However, there are several problems that prevent the widespread of sensor networks in real situations. Among them, the reliability of communication especially in noisy industrial environments is difficult to guarantee. In addition, interoperability between the sensor networks and external applications is also a challenge. Moreover, determining the position of nodes, particularly mobile nodes, is a critical requirement in many types of applications. My original contributions in this thesis include reliable communication, integration, localization solutions for WSNs operating in industrial and critical environments. Because sensor nodes are usually deployed and kept unattended without human intervention for a long duration, e.g. months or even years, it is a crucial requirement to provide the reliable communication for the WSNs. However, many problems arise during packet transmission and are related to the transmission medium (e.g. signal path-loss, noise and interference). Interference happens due to the existence of more than one network or by the spectral spread that happens in some frequencies. This type of problem is more severe in dynamic environments in which noise sources can be introduced at any time or new networks and devices that interfere with the existing one may be added. Consequently, it is necessary for the WSNs to have the ability to deal with the communication failures. The Dynamic MAC (DynMAC) protocol proposed in this thesis employs the Cognitive Radio (CR) techniques to allow the WSNs to adapt to the dynamic noisy environments by automatically selecting the best channel during its operation time. The WSN usually cannot operate in complete isolation, but it needs to be monitored, controlled and visualized by external applications. Although it is possible to add an IP protocol stack to sensor nodes, this approach is not appropriate for many types of WSNs. Consequently, the proxy and gateway approach is still a preferred method for integrating sensor networks with external networks and applications. The problem of the current integration solutions for WSNs is the adaptability, i.e., the ability of the gateway or proxy developed for one sensor network to be reused, unchanged, for others which have different types of applications and data frames. One reason behind this problem is that it is difficult or even impossible to create a standard for the structure of data inside the frame because there are such a huge number of possible formats. Consequently, it is necessary to have an adaptable solution for easily and transparently integrating WSNs and application environments. In this thesis, the Sensor Traffic Description Language (STDL) was proposed for describing the structure of the sensor networks’ data frames, allowing the framework to be adapted to a diversity of protocols and applications without reprogramming. The positions of sensor nodes are critical in many types of industrial applications such as object tracking, location-aware services, worker or patient tracking, etc. In addition, the sensed data is meaningless without the knowledge of where it is obtained. Perhaps the most well-known location-sensing system is the Global Positioning System (GPS). However, equipping GPS sensor for each sensor node is inefficient or unfeasible for most of the cases because of its energy consumption and cost. In addition, GPS is not appropriate in some environments, e.g., indoors. Similar to the original concept of WSNs, the localization solution should also be cheap and with low power consumption. This thesis aims to deal with the above problems. In particular, in order to add the reliability for WSN, DynMAC protocol was proposed, implemented and evaluated. This protocol adds a mechanism to automatically deal with the noisy and changeable environments. For the second problem, the STDL and its engine provide the adaptable capability to the framework for interoperation between sensor networks and external applications. The proposed framework requires no reprogramming when deploying it for new applications and protocols of WSNs. Moreover, the framework also supports localization services for positioning the unknown position sensor nodes in WSNs. The different localization methods are employed to estimate the location of mobile nodes. With the proposed framework, WSNs can be used as plug and play components for integrating with the Future Internet. All the proposed solutions were implemented and validated using simulation and real testbeds in both the laboratory and industrial environments