Wireless Sensor Network

Prabhakar Dhekne

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 1

 Why Talk About
Wireless?
 Wireless communication is not a new technology but cell
phones have brought revolution in wireless communication
 Wireless Technology has changed the way
 Organizations & individuals work & live today

 In less than 10 years

 World has moved from fixed to wireless networks
 Allowing people, mobile devices & computers talk to each other,
connect without a cable
 Only available option for field data acquisition
 Interconnectivity with multiple devices
 Using radio-waves, sometimes light
 Frees user from many constrains of traditional computer &
phone system

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 2

 Ubiquitous
Computing
 Future State of Computing Technology?
 Mobile, many computers
 Small Processors
 Low Power Consumption
 Relatively Low Cost

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 3

 Ubiquitous
Computing
 Small, mobile, inexpensive computers…..
everywhere!
 Fade into the background of everyday life
 Computers everywhere provides potential for data
collection….sensors!
 Temperature
 Light
 Sound
 Motion
 Pressure
 Many others!!!

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 4

 Growth in Wireless
Systems
 Rapid growth in cellular voice services

Cell phones everywhere!
 Several wireless technology options have been available for the
last ~10-20 yrs
 mini cell stations using existing standards like CDMA or

GSM
 wireless PABX using PCS standards such as DECT or

PHS/PACS
 satellite and microwave backhaul

 Above solutions OK for voice & low-speed data, but do not

meet emerging needs for broadband access and mobile data
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 5
 Mobile Computing

 Identify/develop mobile
computing solutions and
effector systems integrated
with existing wireless
infrastructure

 Improve health care via

enhanced training and more
effective decision making

 To maximize the amount of

medical data available for
health surveillance

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 6

 Mobile Healthcare
Technologies

Mobile Healthcare can be

regarded as the integration of
technologies of medical sensors,
mobile computing, and wireless
communications into a system of
medical assistance.

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 7

 Application
Examples
 Monitoring of patient’s vital signs
 Diabetes
 Asthma
 Hypertension
 ECG
 Predictive usage in order to
minimize the needs for medication
 Improving the quality of life

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 8

 Potential Benefits
 Increasing the physician productivity and
efficiency.
 Wireless sensors enable the patients’
freedom of movements and therefore
promote new ways of monitoring the
patient.
 Providing clinicians remote access to
patient’s information eliminates the need
to manually locate and search through
patient’s data.
 Enabling telemonitoring in emergency
scenarios and making remote diagnosis
possible.
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 9
 Mobile
Healthcare
The provision of Real Time patient
care.
 No matter where the clinician is
 No matter where the patient is
 To apply physiological and medical knowledge,
advanced diagnostics, simulations, and effector systems
integrated with information and telecommunications for
the purposes of enhancing operational and medical
decision-making, improving medical training, and
delivering medical treatment across all barriers

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 10

 Typical Demo System
 The patient is provided with a wearable
wireless sensor. The signal from the
sensor is captured in a Node situated in
a mobile phone.
 The system allows ubiquitous access to
patient’s data and medical information
in real-time via the mobile phone.
 The medical data is stored & processed
in a server, and can be used for
establishing diagnostics and
treatments.

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 11

 Application server
 Application server centralises the
received data and presents it to the
user as:
 Raw data
 Formatted as graphs

App Server

DB

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 12

 Wireless
Technology
 Emerging mainstream wireless technologies provide powerful building
blocks for next-generation applications
 WLAN (IEEE 802.11 “WiFi”) hot-spots for broadband access,
Bluetooth
 PDAs and laptops with integrated WLANs

 Broadband Wireless access technology- MAN (Alternative to DSL)

 IEEE 802.16 10-30 Km 40 Mbps WiMax

 Wide area wireless data also growing

 SMS, GPRS, Edge, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO (2.4 Mbps data

optimized)
 Variety of interesting devices (e.g. Treo, Sidekick)

 Networking of embedded devices

 Smart spaces, sensor networks (IEEE 802.15.4a- ZigBee)
 Context-aware mobile data services and web caching for
information services
 Wireless sensor nets for monitoring and control
 VOIP for24,
August integrated
2006 voice services
Talk atover wireless data networks
SASTRA 13
 IrDA: P2P wireless
 Infra-red Data Association
 Based on Half Duplex Point-to-Point
concept
 Frequency below the red end of
spectrum making it invisible
 Eliminate the need for cables
 Clear line-of-sight
 Short-range (few meters)
 Simplest, most prevailing wireless
standard
 No fixed speed 9.6 Kbps, 4Mbps
 Discovery Mode to find out data rate,
size
Port costs less than Rs.
 Token based transmission
1000  IrDA ports on PDA, Laptops USB sticks
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 14
 Remote Control in TV, VCR, Air-
 Bluetooth: Wireless PAN
 Bluetooth (Named after Danish
King Harold Bluetooth)
 Based on Master-Slave concept
 Short-range (10 meters)
 Eliminate the need for cables M1
S
 Operates in 2.4 GHz ISM band S
S 2
1 S
 720 Kbps 1 M 1/S1
 Three modes of operation 2
park/hold/sniff
 Piconet & Scatternet (master+7
slaves) Piconet 1 Piconet 2
 Interference due to multiple
piconets and IEEE 802.15.1
home/person LAN
Port costs about Rs.
 To eliminate interference frequency
2000
hopingAugust
technique
24, 2006 used Talk at SASTRA 15
 Wi-Fi: Wireless LAN (Hot
Spot)
 Wireless Fidelity based LAN
 Most popular on Laptops
 Replacement to wired LAN
 Connectivity on the move
 Short-range (100 meters)
 Ad Hoc and Base station mode
 Security provided at physical
layer
 Operates in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz
 Collection of IEEE standards
Ad Hoc Access 802.11a/b/g 11 Mpbs & 54 Mbps
Net Point Net  Low range, requires more
power hence not suitable for
PDA’s
 Difficult to control access &
August 24, 2006 security
Talk at SASTRA 16
 Wi-Max: Wireless MAN

 Wireless Max
 High Speed 40-70 Mbps
 Mid-range (30 Kmeters)
 Eliminate the need for cables
 Saving of wired cost
 Operates in 2.4 GHz ISM band
 IEEE standard 802.16

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 17

 Issues in Wireless
Networking

 Infrastructured networks
 Handoff
 location management (mobile IP)
 channel assignment

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 18

Issues in Wireless
Networking
Infrastructureless networks
Wireless MAC
 Security (integrity,

authentication, confidentiality)
 Ad Hoc Routing Protocols

 Multicasting and

Broadcasting
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 19
 Indoor Environments
 Three popular technologies
- High Speed Wireless LANs (802.11b
(2.4GHz, 11 Mbps), 802.11a (5GHz, 54 Mbps
& higher)
- Wireless Personal area Networks PANs
(IEEE 804.14)

HomeRF
 Bluetooth, 802.15

- Wireless device networks

Sensor networks,
August24, 2006 Talkwirelessly
at SASTRA networked 20
 What is an Ad hoc
Network
 Collection of mobile wireless nodes forming
a network without the aid of any
infrastructure or centralized administration
 Nodes have limited transmission range
 Nodes act as a routers

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 21

 Ad Hoc Networks
• Disaster recovery
• Battlefield
• ‘Smart’ office

 Rapidly deployable
infrastructure
 Wireless: cabling
impractical
 Ad-Hoc: no advance • Network of access devices
planning • Wireless: untethered
 Backbone network: • Ad-hoc: random deployment
wireless IP routers • Edge network: Sensor networks,
Personal Area Networks (PANs), etc.

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 22

 Ad Hoc Network
 Characteristics
 Dynamic topologies
 Limited channel bandwidth
 Variable capacity links
 Energy-constrained operation
 Limited physical security
 Applications
 Military battlefield networks
 Personal Area Networks (PAN)
 Disaster and rescue operation
 Peer to peer networks
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 23
 Security Challenges in
Ad Hoc Networks
 Lack of Infrastructure or centralized control
 Key management becomes difficult
 Dynamic topology
 Challenging to design sophisticated & secure
routing protocols
 Communication through Radio Waves
 Difficult to prevent eavesdropping
 Vulnerabilities of routing mechanism
 Non-cooperation of nodes
 Vulnerabilities of nodes
 Captured or Compromised
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 24
 Security
 Challenges in ad hoc network security
 The nodes are constantly mobile
 The protocols implemented are co-operative in nature
 There is a lack of a fixed infrastructure to collect audit
data
 No clear distinction between normalcy and anomaly in ad
hoc networks
 Secure the Routing Mechanism
 A mechanism that satisfies security attributes like
authentication, confidentiality, non-repudiation and
integrity
 Secure the Key Management Scheme
 Robust key certification and key distribution mechanism
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 25
 Services while on move
Sensor services services
exercise monitor
biometrics Calendar+ service
traffic information Integrate dynamic traffic & schedule
Doctor prescription service
track health indicators
Doctor write prescription
Follow me kiosk service
Sensors mobile devices receive and transmit messages

Scalable, reliable, Fridge & shopping service

Fridge records stock
consistent, distributed Suggests shopping based on recipe
Shopping guide in store

service

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 26

 Tourist guide
 Stuttgart tourist guide
 Like MapQuest except on mobile
device
 Mapping local interests
 Museums historical sites
 Shopping & restaurants Sample
Data
 Small text with description,
operating hours
 Local map
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 27
 How it works
 Info station
 Island of wireless station
 Embedded in area
 Users have cheap low bandwidth
components
 Integrated to network with high quality
connection
 Requires some overlap to manage transition

between stations for hand off

 Scaleable by load balancing
 Each center contains unique information
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 28
 Overhead of communication
Map-on-the-move
 Provide appropriate map
 County resolution driving in car
 Info stations small area high
bandwidth
 Remainder lower bandwidth

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 29

 Problems in a Mobile
Environment

 Variable Bandwidth
 Disconnected Operation

 Limited Power

 Implications on distributed file

system support?

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 30

 Constraints in mobile
computing
 PDA vs. Laptop vs. cell phones
 Cellular modem connection: Failure
prone
 Space: office vs. city vs. county
 Not continuous connectivity required
 Data such as pictures text files not
streaming audio and video
 Heterogeneous devices
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 31
 MANET: Mobile Ad hoc
Networks
A collection of wireless mobile nodes dynamically forming a
network without any existing infrastructure and the relative
position dictate communication links (dynamically changing).

From DARPA Website

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 32
 Rapidly Deployable Networks
 Failure of communication networks is a critical
problem faced by first responders at a disaster site
 major switches and routers serving the region often
damaged
 cellular cell towers may survive, but suffer from traffic
overload and dependence on (damaged) wired
infrastructure for backhaul
 In addition, existing networks even if they survive
may not be optimized for services needed at site
 significant increase in mobile phone traffic needs to be
served
 first responders need access to data services (email,
www,...)
 new requirements for peer-to-peer communication, sensor
net or robotic control at the site
 Motivates
August 24, need
2006 for rapidly
Talkdeployable
at SASTRA networks that33
 Infostations Prototype: System
for Rapid Deployment
Applications
 Outdoor Infostations
with radio backhaul
 for first responders to set up
wireless communications
infrastructure at a disaster site
 provides WLAN services and
access to cached data
 wireless backhaul link

includes data cache
 Project for development
of:
 high-speed short-range radios
 802.11 MAC enhancements
 content caching algorithm &
software
 hardware integration including
solar panels,
August 24, 2006 antennas and WINLAB’s Outdoor Infostations Prototype (2002)
Talk at SASTRA 34
embedded computing device
 Ad-Hoc Wireless
Network
 A flexible, open-architecture ad-hoc WLAN and sensor
network testbed ...
 open-source Linux routers, AP’s and terminals

(commercial hardware)
 Linux and embedded OS forwarding and sensor nodes

(custom)
 radio link and global network monitoring/visualization

tools
802.11b
 prototype ad-hoc discovery and routing protocols
Management PDA
stations
Radio Monitor
802.11b
Forwarding Node/AP Linux PC
AP (custom)
Commercial
Router network 802.11
Compute
with arbitrary topology
& storage
servers
Sensor Node
PC-based (custom)
August 24, 2006
PC Linux router Talk at SASTRA 35
 What is a WSN?
Sensor: The device Observer: The end user/computer

Phenomenon: The entity of interest to the observer

 A network that is formed when a set of small

sensor devices that are deployed in an “ad hoc
fashion” no predefined routes, cooperate for
sensing a physical phenomenon.
 A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) consists of base
stations and a number of wireless sensors.
 Is simple, tiny, inexpensive, and battery-powered
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 36
 Why Wireless Sensors
Now?
 Moore’s Law is making sufficient CPU performance
available with low power requirements in a small
size.
 Research in Materials Science has resulted in novel
sensing materials for many Chemical, Biological,
and Physical sensing tasks.
 Transceivers for wireless devices are becoming
smaller, less expensive, and less power hungry
(low power tiny Radio Chips).
 Power source improvements in batteries, as well as
passive power sources such as solar or vibration
energy, are expanding application
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA
options. 37
 Typical Sensor Node
Features
 A sensor node has:
 Sensing Material

 Physical – Magnetic, Light, Sound

 Chemical – CO, Chemical Weapons
 Biological – Bacteria, Viruses, Proteins
 Integrated Circuitry (VLSI)
 A-to-D converter from sensor to circuitry
 Packaging for environmental safety
 Power Supply

Passive – Solar, Vibration
 Active – Battery power, RF Inductance
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 38
 Sensor Node Hardware
Sensor + Actuator + ADC + Microprocessor + Powering Unit
+ Communication Unit (RF Transceiver) + GPS
1Kbps- 1Mbps
3m-300m
Transceiver Lossy Transmission

128Kb-1Mb
Limited Storage Memory
Embedded 8 bit, 10 MHz
Processor Slow Computation

Requires
Supervision Sensor
Multiple sensors Limited Lifetime
Battery

 Portable and self-sustained (power,

communication, intelligence).
 Capable of embedded complex data
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 39
processing.
Sensors and Wireless Radio
 Types of sensors:
-Pressure,
-Temperature
-Light
-Biological
-Chemical
-Strain, fatigue
-Tilt
 Capable to survive harsh
environments (heat,
humidity, corrosion,
pollution etc).
 No source of interference to
systems being monitored
and/or surrounding systems.
 Could be deployed in large
numbers.
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 40
Wireless Sensor
Networks
 ZigBee Wireless
Communication Protocol
 Based on the IEEE 802.15.4
standard
 Small form factor
 Relatively Inexpensive
 Low Power Consumption
 Low Data Rate of
Communication
 Self Organising, Self-Healing…
multi-hop nodes
 Integrated Sensors
 Ideal for Wireless Sensor
Network Applications
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 41
 WSN APPLICATIONS
 Potential for new intelligent applications:
 Smart Homes
 Process monitoring and control
 Security/Surveillance
 Environmental Monitoring
 Construction
 Medical/Healthcare

 Implemented with Wireless Sensor Networks!

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 42

 Medical and Healthcare Appln
Remote
Databases

Backbone
Net Switch Network

In Hospital
Physician Net Switch

Wireless Remote
consultation

Possibility for Remote consulting

(including Audio Visual communication)

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 43

Medical and Healthcare
Applications

Sensors equipped
with BlueTooth

August 24, 2006 Source: USC Web Site

Talk at SASTRA 44
 iBadge - UCLA
 Investigate behavior of
children/patient
 Features:
 Speech recording / replaying
 Position detection

 Direction detection / estimation

(compass)
 Weather data: Temperature,

Humidity,
August 24, 2006
Pressure, Light
Talk at SASTRA 45
 Other Examples
 MIT d'Arbeloff Lab – The ring sensor
 Monitors the physiological status of
the wearer and transmits the
information to the medical
professional over the Internet
 Oak Ridge National Laboratory
 Nose-on-a-chip is a MEMS-based
sensor
 It can detect 400 species of gases
and transmit a signal indicating the
level to a central control station
 VERICHIP: Miniaturised, Implanted,
Identification
August 24, 2006Technology Talk at SASTRA 46
 Structural Health
Monitoring
Accelerometer board prototype,
Ruiz­Sandoval, Nagayama & Spencer,
Civil E., U. Illinois Urbana­Champaign

Semi­active Hydraulic Damper
Model bridge with attached wireless sensors, (SHD), Kajima Corporation, Japan
B.F. Spencer’s Lab, Civil E., U. Illinois U­C
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 47
 Application in
Environment Monitoring
 Measuring
Pollutants monitored by sensors in

pollutant the river

concentration
 Pass on
information to ST

monitoring station
 Predict current Sensors report to the base
monitoring station

location of
pollutant volume
based on various
parameters
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 48
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 49
 Vehicular Traffic Control

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 50

 Project at The University of California, Davis

US FCC allocated
5.850 to 5.925 GHz
dedicated short range
communication (DSRC)
Road side to
Vehicle
Vehicle to
vehicle
communication
VMesh: Distributed Data Sensing, Relayin
Networks
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 51
 Network characteristics of
WSN

 Generally, the network:

 Consists of a large number of sensors (103 to
106)
 Spread over large geographical region
(radius = 1 to 103 km)
 Spaced out in 1, 2, or 3 dimensions
 Is self-organizing
 Uses wireless media
 May use intermediate “collators”

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 52

 Sensor Network Topology
 Hundreds of nodes require careful handling of
topology maintenance.
 Predeployment and deployment phase
 Numerous ways to deploy the sensors (mass,

individual placement, dropping from plane..)

 Postdeployment phase
 Factors are sensor nodes position change,

reachability due to jamming, noise, obstacles etc,

available energy, malfunctioning, theft, sabotage
 Redeployment of additional nodes phase
 Redeployment because of malfunctioning of units

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 53

 Organization into Ad Hoc
Net

 Individual sensors are quite

limited.
 Full potential is realized only by
using a large number of sensors.
 Sensors are then organized into an
ad hoc network.
 Need efficient protocols to route
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 54
Network Topologies
 Star
 Single Hop Network
 All nodes communicate
directly with Gateway
 No router nodes
 Cannot self-heal
 Range 30-100m
 Consumes lowest power

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 55

 Network
Topologies
 Mesh
 Multi-hopping network
 All nodes are routers
 Self-configuring network
 Node fails, network self-
heals
 Re-routes data through
shortest path
 Highly fault tolerant
network
 Multi-hopping provides
much longer range
 Higher power
consumption…nodes
must always listen!
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 56
 Network
Topologies
 Star-Mesh Hybrid
 Combines of star’s low
power and…
 …mesh’s self-healing
and longer range
 All endpoint sensor
nodes can communicate
with multiple routers
 Improves fault tolerance
 Increases network
communication range
 High degree of flexibility
and mobility

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 57

 Self-Organizing WLAN
 Opportunistic ad-hoc wireless networking concepts starting to
mature…
 Initial use to extend WLAN range in user-deployed networks

 Based on novel auto-discovery and multi-hop routing

protocols
 extends the utility Wired Network
and reach of low-cost/high speed WiFi
equipment AP1 Infrastructure AP2

802.11 Access to
AP

Ad-hoc radio link

(w/multi-hop routing
Ad-hoc
Infrastructure
links

Ad-hoc access
To FN
Forwarding
Node (FN)
Mobile Node (MN)
(end-user)
Forwarding Node (FN)
Self-organizing
Ad-hoc WLAN

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 58

 How to get information
from Data-centric Sensor Networks?
 Types of Queries:
 Historical Queries: Analysis of data collected over time
 One Time Queries: Snapshot view of the network
 Persistent Queries: Periodic monitoring at long and regular
intervals
 Routing required to respond to a Query:
 Application specific
 Data centric
 Data aggregation capability desirable
 Need to minimize energy consumption

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 59

 Software
Framework

MAC layer (Tiny OS, routing)

Configuration Table

Power consumption status & replacement strategy

Sensor Data Management

Middleware

Application (passing parameters via API)

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 60

 Technical
challenges

 Sensor design
 Self-organizing network, that requires
0-configuration of sensors
 Random or planned deployment of
sensors, and collators
 Auto-addressing
 Auto-service discovery
 Sensor localization
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 61
 Power
Consumption
 Limited Power Source
 Battery Lifetime is limited
 Each sensor node plays a dual role of
data originator and data router (data
processor)
 The malfunctioning of a few nodes
consumes lot of energy (rerouting of
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 62
 Environmental Factors
 Wireless sensors need to operate in
conditions that are not encountered
by typical computing devices:
 Rain, sleet, snow, hail, etc.
 Wide temperature variations
 May require separating sensor from
electronics
 High humidity
 Saline or other corrosive substances
 High wind
August 24, 2006 speeds Talk at SASTRA 63
 Historical Comparison
Consider a 40 Year Old Computer
Model Honeywell H-300 Mica 2

Date 6/1964 7/2003

CPU 2 MHz 4 MHz

Memor
32 KB 128 KB
y
SRAM ??? 512 KB

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 64

 Advances in Wireless
Sensor Nodes
Consider Multiple Generations of Berkeley
Motes
Model Rene 2 Rene 2 Mica Mica 2
10/200
Date 6/2001 2/2002 7/2003
0
CPU 4 MHz 8 MHz 4 MHz 4 MHz
Flash
Memor 8 KB 16 KB 128 KB 128 KB
y
SRAM 32 KB 32 KB 512 KB 512 KB
10 10 40 40
Radio
Kbps Kbps Kbps Kbps
August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 65
 Summary
 Sensor networks will facilitate one to address
several societal issues:
 Early-warning systems
 Disaster mitigation
 Applications in other sectors
 Security, transportation, irrigation
 Technology is available today
 Research into new sensors
 Needs experimentation, pilot deployment
 Lots needs to be done in Software (OS, MAC, Application)
 While cost is an issue today, it will not be so tomorrow

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 66

 References
 Wireless & Mobile Systems Prof Dharma Prakash
Agrawal and H. Deng

 Integrating Wireless Technology in the Enterprise

by Williams Wheeler, Elsevier Digital Press

 Circuits & Systems for Wireless Communications

Edited by Markus Helfenstein and George S.
Moschytz, Kluwer Academic Publishers

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 67

 Any
Questions?

August 24, 2006 Talk at SASTRA 68