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50 International Symposium ELMAR-2008, 10-12 September 2008, Zadar, Croatia

Academic education Wireless Sensor Network: AeWSN

Karl Benki1, Marko Malajner1, Aleksandar Peuli2 and arko uej1
1

University of Maribor, FERI, Smetanova 17

University of Kragujevac, Technical faculty aak, Svetog save 65, 32000 aak
E-mail: karl.benkic@uni-mb.si

Abstract - Over the years several technologies for WSN, including MAC protocols, routing protocols and
topology algorithms have been proposed. ZigBee is one of such technologies. This work presents an educations
wireless sensor network called AeWSN. AeWSN is based on ZigBee technology and offers the studying and
implementing of different topologies and routing algorithms, evaluation of these algorithms and other pre
simulation. An AeWSN wireless sensor network consist of three main modules: physical WSN module, Services
and control module and "random users" connected to static WSN.
Keywords - wireless sensor networks, education, software

1. INTRODUCTION
Recently, the use of Wireless Sensor Networks
(WSN) has greatly expaned. Military, health and
medicine, surveillance and even industrial
applications are just a few of the fields where a
WSN is already used extensively [1]. Consequently,
there is a strong need to provide at least basic
knowledge about WSN to undergraduate students.
Standard WSN solutions, such as ZigBee [4], were
designed with the idea, that primary user concern is
just about applications only and that a deep
knowledge of WSN is unnecessary. This is,
ofcourse, unsuitable for some education purposes.
For example: we would like to provide our students
with in-depth knowledge about WSN. The project
called AeWSN was put in motion last year with this
framework.
Project AeWSN defines an Academic education
Wireless Sensor Network which offers students and
researchers the opportunity to the specifics of
wireless communications systems, such as forming
ad-hoc network, designing media access controls
(MAC) for considering optimization between energy
consumption and Quality of Services (QoS),
topology control and routing testing etc. The goals
of these explorations is learn-by-doing about the
state-of-the-art technology, its concepts, applications
in modern telecommunication and information and
automatization systems. We believe this knowledge
is already essential for engineers from mentioned
fields as well as for electronic engineers.
The AeWSN project is envisaged a continuously
developing system enabling students to design and
make new hardware, as well as software expansion
and use of WSN. We started with simple
applications such as the measurements of
temperature, moisture and illumination on fixed
locations and making this information available to
users. In future, we plan to expand AeWSN platform
positioning
system
possibilities,
message

deployment service (similar to RDS), health service

etc. A simple single extension and broadening of
AeWSN is planned to be carried out by
undergraduate students as part of their seminar
work. More pretentiousness studies and research
work is intended for graduate students and research
projects by Ph.D. students.

2. DESCRIPTION OF AeWSN
AeWSN is actually a testbed, consisting of (Fig. 1):
WSN nodes,
personal computer with base station
module,
SPaRCSoft program containing five
modules,
user interface,
commercial programs for modeling,
simulation, visualization and software
development.
Since the idea for developed AeWSN was inspired
by standard IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee
implementation, we have adopted terms coined by
them. For exploration of all WSN properties and
features we decided, that all network nodes are so
called Full Function Device, which enables to
configure any kind of WSN topology.
2.1. WSN nodes
WSN nodes are designed according to the IEEE
802.15.4 standard. LPC2138 (ARM7) was selected
when selecting MCU for the nodes, despite
relatively high energy consumption. The reasons for
the selection were experiences with CPU from
different industrial projects and all the necessary
development tools available for it etc. ZigBee
compatible Radio Frequency (RF) chip MRF24J40
and LPC2138 ARM microcontroller are connected

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50 International Symposium ELMAR-2008, 10-12 September 2008, Zadar, Croatia

via a Serial Periphery Interface (SPI) bus. Over

Analog-Digital Converter (ADC) light is measured.
The temperature and humidity sensor is connected
over a Dallas one-wire bus. All sensor nodes have
remote firmware upgrade feature - firmware of the
LPC2138 core procesor can be replaced over ZigBee
network. For this purpose we have added the
secondary microcontroller PIC18LF2620 and SPI
flash memory, where the firmware is stored.
Firmware upgrade of the sensor (2.1 processor) is
done remotely from the base station (coordinator
node).

Fig. 1. AeWSN system

The firmware control nodes determines WSN
topology and can establish ad-hoc network, etc, as
well as some other features latency, traffic,
robustness, survivability, etc.
2.3. Personal computer with base station node
Special software called SPaRCSoft was developed
for the PC. SPaRCSoft is the soul of the AeWSN
system and its functions are described in the
following subsections.
SPaRCSoft runs on a PC and is connected to the
base station (BSN) WSN sensor node over USB.
This makes it part of the AeWSN. The BS node can
fulfill several roles: from a sniffer to the WSN
coordinator.
2.3. SPaRCSoft
The program bundle SPaRCSoft currently consists
of five modules (Fig. 1):
1. Authentication and Authorization module.
2. Graph Solver module.
3. Remote Firmware upgrade module.

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4. WSN properties measurement module.

5. WEB service module.
The SPaRCSoft is written in C# language in a
3.5 .NET framework (VS2008). Its core also uses
API for linking with comercial software as Matlab
and OMNET++. Software development tool called
Vision is used for ARM processors.
Using SPaRCSoft it is possible to have simple
implementation of WSN design, build up different
test networks and supervise the status in each sensor
node. A built-in data base similar to MIB (known
from Simple Network Protocol) is used for this
purpose by which it is also possible to detect any
attack on AeWSN.
AAA - An Accreditation, Authentication,
Authorization (AAA) module is used for user
authentication when they are connecting to the
network (of course, if the network is in normal
operating state). Users can connect to the WSN
through a simple module (basically gateway
between 802.15.4 and 802.15.1), with a PDA or a
smart-phone which supports Bluetooth. On the PDA
there is a simple application allowing logging-in to
the network (authentication is made via ZigBee
address and the user password). When connected,
users can read measurements from any module on
the network.
Remote firmware upgrade - On every node there is
a program with topology and routing algorithm
implemented. If we want or need to change the
algorithms, a new program must be written,
compiled, and prepared in Intel HEX format.
Firmware can be written and compiled with every C
compiler which supports ARM7 CPU architecture
(we currently use KEIL Vision studio). Students
and researchers can then upload new firmware to all
nodes at the same time (flushing the network) or
joust on targeted nodes (one or more) connected to
the network.
Upgrading is done by SPaRCSoft through BSN
which accepts Intel HEX format. The whole
firmware update procedure works as follows: New
firmware is loaded into SPaRCSoft as Intel HEX
format where it is encoded (UUENCODE) and split
into a packets size of 256 bytes. Each of the 256
bytes long packets are then transmitted to target
node(s) where they are put together into SPI flash.
When completed, the firmware is stored in SPI flash,
the PIC microcontroller takes over and flashes the
LPC. When completed the PIC is put to sleep and
LPC takes over.
There are two versions of firmware stored on the
external flash: Original "working" firmware and a
new one when upgrade is made. When firmware
upgrade is complete on selected nodes, the
coordinator resets the whole network and new
algorithms are used for MAC, topology control, data
routing

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50 International Symposium ELMAR-2008, 10-12 September 2008, Zadar, Croatia

Fig. 2. Remote firmware upgrade procedure

The complete hardware description, implementation
and flashing procedure can be found in other article
presented on the conference (Online programmable
wireless sensor node for testing purpose).
SPaRCGraph - The SPaRCGraph is intended to be
used for topology and routing simulations. Topology
and routing results are then compared with
measurements on the real WSN. The SPaRCGraph
is also used for calculating any loss factor in the
channel (Log-distance path model) model and for
module localization purposes. It is powerful tool for
graph theory designed for wireless sensor networks.
It is intended as a framework for simplification
when developing new topology and routing
algorithms as student projects or as a result of
previous research.
WebServices - When the WSN is free of any test
the firmware for "normal operation" is uploaded.
When the network is in "normal operation mode"
(NOM), sensor nodes gather data about moisture,
temperature and illumination. This data is then
available to users trough HTTP (IIS6 running
ASP.NET pages).
Data is collected in the SPaRCSoft data gathering
section. Data is then transferred to the WebService
module and there it is accessible to the HTTP server.
SPaRCSoft or SPaRCSoft WebService is
inaccessible from the internet. Only the HTTP server
has access to it. In the future we, will implement a
second WebService which will be accessible as
typical ASP.NET WebService.
3. FROM SIMULATIONS TO REAL TEST BED
Two main problems need to be solved for simulating
topology control and routing algorithms. First, there
is no widely known and approved reference model
for topology control and routing algorithms.
Secondly, there are just a few measurements done on
real sensor networks for supporting the theory.
Our main goal is to practically (on real WSN)
confirm topology and routing simulation results,
done with using professional. In regard to this we

built a communication model in SPaRCSoft.

Communication model is defined by the
communication graph. Topology and routing
algorithm simulations are done in OPNET or
OMNET++
using
previously
defined
communication graph model. When the simulations
are complete, we apply the same routing and
topology algorithms to the real network in order to
evaluate algorithms on real hardware.
Topology and routing algorithms for real networks
are coded in ANSI C and/or C++, with the use of
Vision. Consequently, the code is not as optimal as
in simulation. Due to this, some performance
differences may occur when evaluating. When
working with real sensor nodes, the AeWSN system
must be initialized first. When nodes are deployed
they start to broadcast their presence in the
neighborhood. When BSN receives the broadcast it
sends an invitation to the network. After the nodes in
the BSN neighborhood are connected they can
accept the broadcast messages in their neighborhood
and so on until all the nodes are joined in the
network.

Fig. 2. Remote firmware upgrade procedure

Figure (Fig. 3) displays the GUI of the SPaRCSoft
module SPaRCSoft with topology creation. The
power of the transmitting nodes is first simulated (so
that no node stays disconnected from the network)
and then remotely adjusted. In the figure we can see
the theoretical transmitting power (dark color in
circle) and reduced transmitting power with channel
model (Log-distance) implementation.
3.1. Topology and routing algorithms
Topology is defined as routes implicitly or
explicitly used by routing algorith [2]. Topology
has a huge impact on sensor node power
consumption and message delivery reliability. As the
topology changes, the power consumption of a node
is affected (the nearer the neighbor the less the
power node consumes). On the other hand, lowering
the transmitting power means lowering the count of
reachable neighbors. So topology control is a trade-

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50 International Symposium ELMAR-2008, 10-12 September 2008, Zadar, Croatia

off between power consumption and message

delivery reliability. Therefore, many topology
algorithms (including mesh, cluster tree and star
topology defined by ZigBee [4]) can be simulated
and tested using the SPaRCGraph module from the
SPaRCGraph program. Beside typical ZigBee
topology algorithms, some general algorithms are
included:
Relative Neighbourhood Graph (RNG).
Minimum Spanning Tree (MST).
Connect Topology.
Noble Topology Control Algorithm (NTC).
Local Information No Topology (LINT).
Today, there are more that 60 known routing
algorithms for WSN [9]. All the topology algorithms
are shortly explained in [2]. First of all the AODV
routing protocol for the ZigBee network was
implemented [4] followed by the routing algorithms:
Directed diffusion routing protocol.
Rumor Routing Algorithm.
Minimum Cost Forwarding Algorithm.
Power-Efficient Gathering in Sensor
Information System routing.
Of course, there are some other routing schemes
which are also of interest to us (mainly because of
QoS support) but we left them for student seminars
and research work. We also considered
implementing already researched and simulated
hybrid routing algorithms based on ant colony
optimization and simulated annealing [5].

4. AeWSN SERVICES
The AeWSN network, besides algorithm testing and
evaluating, also offers data gathering and services.
Service offers people a connection to the WSN and
to use it as communication network. If the user
wants to connect to a AeWSN, it is required to have:
handheld gateway device and PDA or Smart Phone
with our software loaded on it.
Currently only three services are available on
AeWSN:
1. Logging-in to the network,
2. getting information about climate,
3. remote firmware upgrade.
There are more services in development, two of
them are already at the beta phase: the first one is
accessing WSN data over web (HTTP), and the
second onse is called user health.
When Accessing WSN data over web the user will
be able to determine his last connection to the
AeWSN, where he was connected and how long.
Equal data will be available over PDA and HTTP.
pointed out. Eventual restrictions and limitations are
commented. Further research directions may be
indicated. User health will be a service for real time
health monitoring (heart beat, blood pressure,
temperature). It monitors and logs user condition
and stores it on the server and in case of an

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emergency (cardiac arrest or stroke) alerts a

predefined institution about an event. Of course the
user health service will be only run by volunteers
working on AeWSN project. We have some
experience in the health monitoring field [6] but in
the AeWSN project we plan to integrate more than
one health service into the wireless sensor network.
If the user is authenticated as doctor he will be able
to monitor patient health parameters in realtime over
PDA or will be able to check medical logs or the
medical history of the patient.

5. CONCLUSION
The AeWSN project was designed for testing and
evaluating wireless sensor networks from the
communication point of view from topology and
routing algorithms to information services and
security concerns.
We have shown that because of the application
dependency of commercial WSN they are
inappropriate for education. We focused our effort to
develop a studying appropriate WSN with a
simple remotely reconfigurable option.
In first stage test-bed will consist from 12 wirelesses
sensor node and in the second stage around 45
sensor nodes are planned.
With continuously planned student development of
AeWSN, we hope that in the near future AeWSN
will have implemented a more powerful
measurement module and new services, and in this
respect more and better routing and MAC algorithms
availabe.

REFERENCES
[1] F. L. Lewis: Wireless Sensor Networks. Smart
Environments: Technologies, Protocols, and Applications,
New York, 2004
[2] Gaurav Srivastava, Paul Boustead, Joe F.Chicharo: A
Comparison of Topology Control Algorithms for Ad-hoc
Networks. University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia,
2003
[3] Qiangfeng Jiang, D. Manivannan: Routing Protocols
for Sensor Networks. Department of Computer Science,
University of Kentucky, Kentucky
[4] R. R. Garcia: Understanding the ZigBee stack. ZigBee
alliance home page
[5] Karl Benkic and Zarko Cucej: Using Ant colony
optimization for routing algorithm in CDMA wireless
sensor networks. EuroSSC, Kendal, October 2007
[6] Z. Cucej, A. Peulic: Zigbee based patient parameters
monitoring system. ELMAR, 2005
[7] Paolo Santi: Topology Control in Wireless Ad Hoc and
Sensor Networks, ISBN-13: 978-0470094532, September
2005.
[8] Internet source: www.s-arm.si/UM10120_1.pdf,
Philips LPC213x Users Manual
[9] Jamal N. Al-Karaki and Ahmed E. Kamal: Routing
Techniques in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey IEEE
Wireless Communications, December 2004