Impact of mobile event movement on the performance of wireless sensor networks

In this paper, we investigate how the sensor network performs in the case when the event moves with special movement path. We compare the simulation results for four scenarios: when the event is stationary, moving randomly, moving with simple 4 path and boids path. The simulation results have shown that for the case when event is moving randomly the performance is the worst in the four scenarios. The characteristic of goodput decreases with the increase of number of sensor nodes. In the case of boids model, the gooput is unstable when the Tr is lower than 10 pps. The consumed energy characteristic increases with the increase of Tr. Simulation results show that the consumed energy of random movement is the worst among four scenarios. The consumed energy of boids model is the lowest in four cases. This shows that the event movement with boids model can decrease the consumed energy in the large scale WSNsPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

DESIGN OF MOBILE DATA COLLECTOR BASED CLUSTERING ROUTING PROTOCOL FOR WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consisting of hundreds or even thousands of nodes, canbe used for a multitude of applications such as warfare intelligence or to monitor the environment. A typical WSN node has a limited and usually an irreplaceable power source and the efficient use of the available power is of utmost importance to ensure maximum lifetime of eachWSNapplication. Each of the nodes needs to transmit and communicate sensed data to an aggregation point for use by higher layer systems. Data and message transmission among nodes collectively consume the largest amount of energy available in WSNs. The network routing protocols ensure that every message reaches thedestination and has a direct impact on the amount of transmissions to deliver messages successfully. To this end, the transmission protocol within the WSNs should be scalable, adaptable and optimized to consume the least possible amount of energy to suite different network architectures and application domains. The inclusion of mobile nodes in the WSNs deployment proves to be detrimental to protocol performance in terms of nodes energy efficiency and reliable message delivery. This thesis which proposes a novel Mobile Data Collector based clustering routing protocol for WSNs is designed that combines cluster based hierarchical architecture and utilizes three-tier multi-hop routing strategy between cluster heads to base station by the help of Mobile Data Collector (MDC) for inter-cluster communication. In addition, a Mobile Data Collector based routing protocol is compared with Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy and A Novel Application Specific Network Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks routing protocol. The protocol is designed with the following in mind: minimize the energy consumption of sensor nodes, resolve communication holes issues, maintain data reliability, finally reach tradeoff between energy efficiency and latency in terms of End-to-End, and channel access delays. Simulation results have shown that the Mobile Data Collector based clustering routing protocol for WSNs could be easily implemented in environmental applications where energy efficiency of sensor nodes, network lifetime and data reliability are major concerns

DESIGN OF RELIABLE AND SUSTAINABLE WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS: CHALLENGES, PROTOCOLS AND CASE STUDIES

Integrated with the function of sensing, processing, and wireless communication, wireless sensors are attracting strong interest for a variety of monitoring and control applications. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been deployed for industrial and remote monitoring purposes. As energy shortage is a worldwide problem, more attention has been placed on incorporating energy harvesting devices in WSNs. The main objective of this research is to systematically study the design principles and technical approaches to address three key challenges in designing reliable and sustainable WSNs; namely, communication reliability, operation with extremely low and dynamic power sources, and multi-tier network architecture. Mathematical throughput models, sustainable WSN communication strategies, and multi-tier network architecture are studied in this research to address these challenges, leading to protocols for reliable communication, energy-efficient operation, and network planning for specific application requirements. To account for realistic operating conditions, the study has implemented three distinct WSN testbeds: a WSN attached to the high-speed rotating spindle of a turning lathe, a WSN powered by a microbial fuel cell based energy harvesting system, and a WSN with a multi-tier network architecture. With each testbed, models and protocols are extracted, verified and analyzed. Extensive research has studied low power WSNs and energy harvesting capabilities. Despite these efforts, some important questions have not been well understood. This dissertation addresses the following three dimensions of the challenge. First, for reliable communication protocol design, mathematical throughput or energy efficiency estimation models are essential, yet have not been investigated accounting for specific application environment characteristics and requirements. Second, for WSNs with energy harvesting power sources, most current networking protocols do not work efficiently with the systems considered in this dissertation, such as those powered by extremely low and dynamic energy sources. Third, for multi-tier wireless network system design, routing protocols that are adaptive to real-world network conditions have not been studied. This dissertation focuses on these questions and explores experimentally derived mathematical models for designing protocols to meet specific application requirements. The main contributions of this research are 1) for industrial wireless sensor systems with fast-changing but repetitive mobile conditions, understand the performance and optimal choice of reliable wireless sensor data transmission methods, 2) for ultra-low energy harvesting wireless sensor devices, design an energy neutral communication protocol, and 3) for distributed rural wireless sensor systems, understand the efficiency of realistic routing in a multi-tier wireless network. Altogether, knowledge derived from study of the systems, models, and protocols in this work fuels the establishment of a useful framework for designing future WSNs

DESIGN OF MOBILE DATA COLLECTOR BASED CLUSTERING ROUTING PROTOCOL FOR WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consisting of hundreds or even thousands of nodes, canbe used for a multitude of applications such as warfare intelligence or to monitor the environment. A typical WSN node has a limited and usually an irreplaceable power source and the efficient use of the available power is of utmost importance to ensure maximum lifetime of eachWSNapplication. Each of the nodes needs to transmit and communicate sensed data to an aggregation point for use by higher layer systems. Data and message transmission among nodes collectively consume the largest amount of energy available in WSNs. The network routing protocols ensure that every message reaches thedestination and has a direct impact on the amount of transmissions to deliver messages successfully. To this end, the transmission protocol within the WSNs should be scalable, adaptable and optimized to consume the least possible amount of energy to suite different network architectures and application domains. The inclusion of mobile nodes in the WSNs deployment proves to be detrimental to protocol performance in terms of nodes energy efficiency and reliable message delivery. This thesis which proposes a novel Mobile Data Collector based clustering routing protocol for WSNs is designed that combines cluster based hierarchical architecture and utilizes three-tier multi-hop routing strategy between cluster heads to base station by the help of Mobile Data Collector (MDC) for inter-cluster communication. In addition, a Mobile Data Collector based routing protocol is compared with Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy and A Novel Application Specific Network Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks routing protocol. The protocol is designed with the following in mind: minimize the energy consumption of sensor nodes, resolve communication holes issues, maintain data reliability, finally reach tradeoff between energy efficiency and latency in terms of End-to-End, and channel access delays. Simulation results have shown that the Mobile Data Collector based clustering routing protocol for WSNs could be easily implemented in environmental applications where energy efficiency of sensor nodes, network lifetime and data reliability are major concerns

Reliable and Energy Efficient Network Protocols for Wireless Body Area Networks

In a wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) various sensors are attached on clothing, on the body or are even implanted under the skin. The wireless nature of the network and the wide variety of sensors offers numerous new, practical and innovative applications. A motivating example can be found in the world of health monitoring. The sensors of the WBAN measure for example the heartbeat, the body temperature or record a prolonged electrocardiogram. Using a WBAN, the patient experiences a greater physical mobility and is no longer compelled to stay in a hospital. A WBAN imposes the networks some strict and specific requirements. The devices are tiny, leaving only limited space for a battery. It is therefore of uttermost importance to restrict the energy consumption in the network. A possible solution is the development of energy efficient protocols that regulate the communication between the radios. Further, it is also important to consider the reliability of the communication. The data sent contains medical information and one has to make sure that it is correctly received at the personal device. It is not allowed that a critical message gets lost. In addition, a WBAN has to support the heterogeneity of its devices. This thesis focuses on the development of energy efficient and reliable network protocols for WBANs. Considered solutions are the use of multi-hop communication and the improved interaction between the different network layers. Mechanisms to reduce the energy consumption and to grade up the reliability of the communication are presented. In a first step, the physical layer of the communication near the human body is studied and investigated. The probability of a connection between two nodes on the body is modeled and used to investigate which network topologies can be considered as the most energy efficient and reliable. Next, MOFBAN, a lightweight framework for network architecture is presented. Finally, CICADA is presented: a new cross layer protocol for WBANs that both handles channel medium access and routing

Design techniques for smart and energy-efficient wireless body sensor networks

Tesis inédita de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Informática, Departamento de Arquitectura de Computadores y Automática, leída el 26/10/2012Las redes inalámbricas de sensores corporales (en inglés: "wireless body sensor networks" o WBSNs) para monitorización, diagnóstico y detección de emergencias, están ganando popularidad y están llamadas a cambiar profundamente la asistencia sanitaria en los próximos años. El uso de estas redes permite una supervisión continua, contribuyendo a la prevención y el diagnóstico precoz de enfermedades, al tiempo que mejora la autonomía del paciente con respecto a otros sistemas de monitorización actuales. Valiéndose de esta tecnología, esta tesis propone el desarrollo de un sistema de monitorización de electrocardiograma (ECG), que no sólo muestre continuamente el ECG del paciente, sino que además lo analice en tiempo real y sea capaz de dar información sobre el estado del corazón a través de un dispositivo móvil. Esta información también puede ser enviada al personal médico en tiempo real. Si ocurre un evento peligroso, el sistema lo detectará automáticamente e informará de inmediato al paciente y al personal médico, posibilitando una rápida reacción en caso de emergencia. Para conseguir la implementación de dicho sistema, se desarrollan y optimizan distintos algoritmos de procesamiento de ECG en tiempo real, que incluyen filtrado, detección de puntos característicos y clasificación de arritmias. Esta tesis también aborda la mejora de la eficiencia energética de la red de sensores, cumpliendo con los requisitos de fidelidad y rendimiento de la aplicación. Para ello se proponen técnicas de diseño para reducir el consumo de energía, que permitan buscar un compromiso óptimo entre el tamaño de la batería y su tiempo de vida. Si el consumo de energía puede reducirse lo suficiente, sería posible desarrollar una red que funcione permanentemente. Por lo tanto, el muestreo, procesamiento, almacenamiento y transmisión inalámbrica tienen que hacerse de manera que se suministren todos los datos relevantes, pero con el menor consumo posible de energía, minimizando así el tamaño de la batería (que condiciona el tamaño total del nodo) y la frecuencia de recarga de la batería (otro factor clave para su usabilidad). Por lo tanto, para lograr una mejora en la eficiencia energética del sistema de monitorización y análisis de ECG propuesto en esta tesis, se estudian varias soluciones a nivel de control de acceso al medio y sistema operativo.Depto. de Arquitectura de Computadores y AutomáticaFac. de InformáticaTRUEunpu

Analysis of the energy latency trade-off in wireless sensor networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) haben im letzten Jahrzehnt eine erhebliche Aufmerksamkeit erlangt. Diese Netzwerke zeichnen sich durch begrenzte Energieressourcen der Sensorknoten aus. Daher ist Energieeffizienz ein wichtiges Thema in Systemdesign und -betrieb von WSNs. Diese Arbeit konzentriert sich auf großflächige Anwendungen von WSNs wie Umwelt- oder Lebensraumüberwachung, die in der Regel den Ad-hoc-Einsatz von Knoten in großen Anzahl erfordern. Ad-hoc-Einsatz und Budgetbeschränkungen hindern Entwickler an der Programmierung der Knoten mit zusätzlichen Informationen wie beispielsweise Routingtabellen, Positionskoordinaten, oder Netzwerkgrenzen. Um diese Informationen zu beschaffen, ist es üblich verschiedene Initialisierungsschemen mit erheblichen Auswirkungen auf den Energieverbrauch und den Programmieraufwand zu implementieren. In Anbetracht dieser Beschränkungen ist ein neues Paradigma für die Initialisierung und den Betrieb von WSNs notwendig, das sich durch einfachen Einsatz und minimalen Energieaufwand auszeichnet. In dieser Arbeit nutzen wir Sink-Mobilität, um den Initialisierungsoverhead und den operativen Overhead zu reduzieren. Unser erster großer Beitrag ist ein Boundary Identification Schema für WSNs mit dem Namen "Mobile Sink based Boundary Detection" (MoSBoD). Es nutzt die Sink-Mobilität um den Kommunikationsoverhead der Sensorknoten zu reduzieren, was zu einer Erhöhung der Laufzeit des WSN führt. Außerdem entstehen durch das Schema keine Einschränkungen in Bezug auf Nodeplacement, Kommunikationsmodell, oder Ortsinformationen der Knoten. Der zweite große Beitrag ist das Congestion avoidance low Latency and Energy efficient (CaLEe) Routingprotokoll für WSNs. CaLEe basiert auf der virtuellen Partitionierung eines Sensorsbereich in Sektoren und der diskreten Mobilität der Sink im WSN. Unsere Simulationsergebnisse zeigen, dass CaLEe, im Vergleich zum derzeitigen State-of-the-art, nicht nur eine erhebliche Reduzierung der durchschnittlichen Energy Dissipation per Node erzielt, sondern auch eine geringere durchschnittliche End-to-End Data Latency in realistischen Szenarien erreicht. Darüber hinaus haben wir festgestellt, dass kein einziges Protokoll in der Lage ist, eine Best-Case-Lösung (minimale Data Latency und minimale Energy Dissipation) für variierende Netzwerkkonfigurationen, die beispielsweise mithilfe der Parameter Kommunikationsbereich der Nodes, Nodedichte, Durchsatz des Sensorfelds definiert werden können, bieten. Daher ist der dritte Hauptbeitrag dieser Arbeit die Identifikation von (auf unterschiedlichen Netzwerkkonfigurationen basierenden) „Operational Regions“, in denen einzelne Protokolle besser arbeiten als andere. Zusammenfassend kann man sagen, dass diese Dissertation das klassische Energieeffizienzproblem der WSNs (Ressource-begrenzte Knoten) aufgreift und gleichzeitig die End-to-End Data Latency auf einen annehmbaren Rahmen eingrenzt.Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) have gained a considerable attention over the last decade. These networks are characterized by limited amount of energy supply at sensor node. Hence, energy efficiency is an important issue in system design and operation of WSN. This thesis focuses on large-scale applications of WSN, such as environment or habitat monitoring that usually requires ad-hoc deployment of the nodes in large numbers. Ad-hoc deployment and budget constraints restrict developers from programming the nodes with information like routing tables, position coordinates of the node, boundary of the network. In order to acquire this information, state-of-the-art is to program nodes with various initialization schemes that are heavy both from WSN’s (energy consumption) and programmer’s perspectives (programming effort). In view of these particular constraints, we require a new paradigm for WSN initialization and operation, which should be easy to deploy and have minimal energy demands. In this thesis, we exploit sink mobility to reduce the WSN initialization and operational overhead. Our first major contribution is a boundary identification scheme for WSN, named “Mobile Sink based Boundary detection” (MoSBoD). It exploits the sink mobility to remove the communication overhead from the sensor nodes, which leads to an increase in the lifetime of the WSN. Furthermore, it does not impose any restrictions on node placement, communication model, or location information of the nodes. The second major contribution is Congestion avoidance low Latency and Energy efficient (CaLEe) routing protocol for WSN. CaLEe is based on virtual partitioning of a sensor field into sectors and discrete mobility of the sink in the WSN. Our simulation results showed that CaLEe not only achieve considerable reduction in average energy dissipation per node compared to current state-of-the-art routing protocols but also accomplish lesser average end-to-end data latency under realistic scenarios. Furthermore, we observe that no single protocol is capable of providing best-case solution (minium data latency and minimum energy dissipation) under varying network configurations, which can be defined using communication range of the nodes, node density, throughput of the sensor field etc. Therefore, the third major contribution of this thesis is the identification of operational regions (based on varying network configurations) where one protocol performs better than the other. In summary, this thesis revisits the classic energy efficiency problem of a WSN (that have resource-limited nodes) while keeping end-to-end data latency under acceptable bounds

Practical packet combining for use with cooperative and non-cooperative ARQ schemes in wireless sensor networks

Although it is envisaged that advances in technology will follow a "Moores Law" trend for many years to come, one of the aims of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is to reduce the size of the nodes as much as possible. The issue of limited resources on current devices may therefore not improve much with future designs as a result. There is a pressing need, therefore, for simple, efficient protocols and algorithms that can maximise the use of available resources in an energy efficient manner. In this thesis an improved packet combining scheme useful on low power, resource-constrained sensor networks is developed. The algorithm is applicable in areas where currently only more complex combining approaches are used. These include cooperative communications and hybrid-ARQ schemes which have been shown to be of major benefit for wireless communications. Using the packet combining scheme developed in this thesis more than an 85% reduction in energy costs are possible over previous, similar approaches. Both simulated and practical experiments are developed in which the algorithm is shown to offer up to approximately 2.5 dB reduction in the required Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) for a particular Packet Error Rate (PER). This is a welcome result as complex schemes, such as maximal-ratio combining, are not implementable on many of the resource constrained devices under consideration. A motivational side study on the transitional region is also carried out in this thesis. This region has been shown to be somewhat of a problem for WSNs. It is characterised by variable packet reception rate caused by a combination of fading and manufacturing variances in the radio receivers. Experiments are carried out to determine whether or not a spread-spectrum architecture has any effect on the size of this region, as has been suggested in previous work. It is shown that, for the particular setup tested, the transitional region still has significant extent even when employing a spread-spectrum architecture. This result further motivates the need for the packet combining scheme developed as it is precisely in zones such as the transitional region that packet combining will be of most benefit