Wireless Sensors Network

What is Sensor?

A sensor is a device that measures a physical quantity(for example: temperature, blood pressure, humidity, speed, etc.) and converts it into a signal which can be read by an observer or by an instrument.e.g proximity,motion,tempert ure,pressure,IR,UV, Barcode Identification and touch sensors etc.

Sensor and Actuator

Sensors: Gatherather & transfer information. Actuators: transfer info, make decisions and perform actions.

Criteria to choose a Sensor

Accuracy Environmental condition - usually has limits for temperature/ humidity Range - Measurement limit of sensor Calibration - Essential for most of the measuring devices as the readings changes with time Resolution - Smallest increment detected by the sensor Cost Repeatability - The reading that varies is repeatedly measured under the same environment

Classification of Sensors
The sensors are classified into the following criteria: 1. Primary Input quantity (Measurand) 2. Transduction principles (Using physical and chemical effects) 3. Material and Technology 4. Property 5. Application Transduction principle is the fundamental criteria which are followed for an efficient approach

What are Wireless Sensors?

Wireless sensors are standard measurement tools equipped with transmitters to convert signals from process control instruments into a radio transmission. The radio signal is interpreted by a receiver which then converts the wireless signal to a specific, desired output, such as an analog current or data analysis via computer software.

What are the primary benefits to using wireless sensors?

1. Safety:Wireless instruments can be used in locations that are difficult to access due to extreme conditions such as high temperature, pH, pressure, etc. 2. Convenience:Wireless sensors can be used to form a web/network that would allow an engineer to monitor a number of different locations from one station. This provides a centralized control of a factory. 3. Reduce Costs:Wireless process control can reduce the cost of monitoring and running a factory by eliminating the need for extension wire, conduit, and other costly accessories.

Selecting a Wireless Sensor

1. 2. 3. Type of Measurement: It is important to understand what is being measured. Accuracy and Response Time: How accurate does the measurement need to be, and how quickly should the measurement be updated? Range: The range of wireless sensors varies widely. Some are designed for short-range, indoor applications of a few hundred feet, while other sensors can transmit data to a receiver located miles away.

4.

Frequency: The frequency of radio transmission is also important to consider. Laws vary by country and region as to which parts of the wireless spectrum are available for use without specific licenses

Types of Wireless Sensors

1. 2. Transmitters use scientific sensors such as thermocouples, pressure transducers, flow meters, etc. to measure a specific property in a process, and then transmit the data via radio signals to a receiver. Receivers receive and interpret the wireless data. The receiver 'reads' a radio signal and converts it into the desired output such as contact closure, analog output, or digital display; some receivers can even export the data to advanced software. Controllers function similar to a receiver in the sense that they receive and analyze data from wireless transmitters. Data Loggers form a special type of wireless measurement network as they can remotely monitor temperature anywhere and then transmit the data back to an engineer once the unit is brought to a receiver.

3. 4.

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Transceivers contain a transmitter and receiver in a single unit. The ability to rebroadcast signals makes wireless transceivers able to extend the range of your wireless measurement network.

Wireless Sensor Network(WSN)

Definition:Wireless sensor network (WSN) refers to a group of spatially dispersed and dedicated autonomous sensors for monitoring and recording the physical conditions of the environment and organizing the collected data at a central location. A sensor network is composed of a large number of sensor nodes, which are densely deployed either inside the phenomenon or very close to it. WSNs measure environmental conditions like temperature, sound, pollution levels, humidity, wind speed and direction, pressure, etc. The WSN is built of "nodes" from a few to several hundreds or even thousands, where each node is connected to one (or sometimes several) sensors.

Wireless Sensor Node

A sensor node, also known as a mote is a node in a wireless sensor network that is capable of performing some processing, gathering sensory information and communicating with other connected nodes in the network. A mote is a node but a node cannot always be a mote. The main components of a sensor node are: 1. Power Supply 2. Sensing Unit 3. Processing Unit 4. Communication Unit 5. Software

WSN Architecture
1. Processing Unit:It is responsible for collecting data from various sources then
processes it and stores it. The central process unit of sensor node determines energy consumption and computational capabilities of a node. a. Microcontroller-It is general purpose processor used for processing. It is not only consists of memory and processor but also non-volatile memory and interfaces. It helps to reduce the requirement of wiring, extra hardware, circuit board space and energy. For saving of power, microcontroller should have three states-active, sleeps, idle. b. Timer/Clock- Timer is a special type of clock. As it is asynchronous technology but for sequencing of sequence, it need timer. c. Operating System- WSN uses less complex operating system as compared to general purpose operating system in the sense that it uses few thousands of lines for coding the system whereas general-purpose consist of millions of lines of codes. d. Memory-Here, we use RAM as an internal memory for storing information in microcontroller. We can also use flash memory which is used for storing program code. However, Size of memory can affect consumption of power and cost. Thus, selecting the appropriate size of memory is important and can be selected according to application.

WSN Architecture
1. Power supply- are responsible for providing energy to the sensor node for monitoring the environment at low-cost and time. It takes energy from power generator and pass to other component of node. Life of sensor node depends upon battery so battery is the important component that must be distribute properly. 2. Communication or Transceiver Unit- A transceiver is a unit in which transmitter as well as receiver is sharing same circuitry on single board. It receives command from processing unit and passes it to the other node of the network. 3. Software- It provides four services such as i)sensor manager which provide access to sensors and manage the delivery of sensor data, ii)storage is responsible for providing the persistent storage for data streams, iii)query manager performs query processing and manages active queries, iv) integrity services is used for access control. 4. Sensing Unit- It has two parts: a. A/D converter- It is used for converting the analog signal into digital signal. It takes an analog signal from sensor and converts it into digital signal and relay to microcontroller for further processing. b. Sensors- is device that sense physical phenomenon such as pressure, motion, speed etc and transform it into analog signal and the same signal are processed by analog to digital converter. It could be active or passive.

Sensor networks VS ad hoc networks:

The number of nodes in a sensor network can be several orders of magnitude higher than the nodes in an ad hoc network. Sensor nodes are densely deployed. Sensor nodes are limited in power, computational capacities and memory. Sensor nodes are prone to failures. The topology of a sensor network changes frequently. Sensor nodes mainly use broadcast, most ad hoc networks are based on p2p. Sensor nodes may not have global ID.

Why WSN
Different communication model
Not regular end-to-end communication in that it is the phenomenon not nodes that matters

Resource constrained
Simplicity of protocol and energy conservation

Trade-off between computation and communication

Sending 1 bit 100m by radio = executing 3000 instructions

Common Wireless Sensor Network Architecture

In a common WSN architecture, the measurement nodes are deployed to acquire measurements such as temperature, voltage, or even dissolved oxygen. The nodes are part of a wireless network administered by the gateway, which governs network aspects such as client authentication and data security. The gateway collects the measurement data from each node and sends it over a wired connection, typically Ethernet, to a host controller.

Mote: Theory of Operation

Motes collect and transfer data using four stages: collecting the data, processing the data, packaging the data, and communicated the data. Each mote collects data using its various types of sensors. After collecting the data, the mote processes the data using its electronic brain. Once the data has been processed, the brain packages the data into an easily handled form. This process is known as enveloping. Once the data has been collected and processed to this point, the mote then begins to interact with other motes.

Tele-Medical Care or m-Health Care

Tele-Medical is a trend of combining telecommunication technology and medicine to create telemedicine and Tele-healthcare. In other words we can call it as a cross-fertilization of medicine and telecommunication. Telemedicine applications further can be classified into two categories. The first one is called store and forward (for Tele-radiology, where xrays, CT scans, and MRIs reports transmission) which is being used for transferring digital images from one location to another. This type of technology is utilized for non-emergent situations, when theres time for an appointment (diagnosis or consultation) to be made, usually within 24 to 48 hours. The second most widely-used technology in telemedicine is two-way, interactive television (IATV). It is mainly used in coordinate consultations when patients, along with their healthcare provider (a doctor or a nurse practitioner) and a telemedicine coordinator (or a combination of the three), gather at one site (the originating site), and a specialist is at another site (the referral site) which is usually at large, metropolitan medical centre.

Treatment Procedure

Treatment Procedure
The Tele-Health Care procedure is completed in three simple steps: 1. The advanced wireless sensors called peripheral sensors i.e Handheld Ultra-sound(new but more sensitive stethoscope) and smart band-aids etc which can be put on the shoes, chest, wrist forehead etc sense the required information and send this body area network to a gateway using a wireless link. 2. The Gateway is a Smart phone/iPhone devices or a dedicated gateway which then transmit this signal to Web or a radio tower. 3. The tower or Web terminal processes it to some medical expert or to another smart phone in a distant location. This technology deals with the diseases like Alzheimers(5 million affected), Asthma(23 million), Breast Cancer(3 million), Depression(21 million), Diabetes(24 million), Heart Failure(5M), Hypertension(74M), Obesity(80M) and sleep disorders(40M) etc.