WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK

Prepared by : Khairil Azman Bin Md Akhir B020810102

1.0 Abstract

The wireless network sensors basically consist of spatially distributed autonomous

devices using sensors to cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions. Nowadays,
wireless sensor network are being used and implemented in many applications such as in
industrial, healthcare system, environmental application, home automation and traffic control.
This report will discuss about the wireless sensor network technologies and some of it main
important characteristic and also its development in Malaysia.

2.0 Introduction

In future, smart environments will shown the next evolutionary step in building,
industrial, utilities, transportation systems and home. Like others electronic system, the smart
environment relies mainly on their sensor data that act as a bridge to connect the real world to
electronic world. The system needs information about its surrounding as well as about its internal
working. The challenges to archive the required quantity of data, collecting information and
monitoring become crucial.

However, the required tasks that needed to complete the smart system can now be
fulfilling by using wireless sensor network. This technology is now able to sense and also
processed the data which is the major requirement in smart technologies. Moreover, in some
applications, running wires or cabling is usually impractical. A sensor network is required that is
fast and easy to install and maintain.

The wireless sensor will cooperate to monitor physical or environmental conditions, such
as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure, motion or pollutants, at different locations. The
development of wireless sensor networks was originally motivated by military applications such
as battlefield surveillance. However, wireless sensor networks are now used in many industrial
and civilian application areas.
3.0 Overview of the Wireless Sensor Networks Technology

Wireless sensor networks represent an entirely new way of looking at computing. In a

sensor network, dozens, hundreds or even thousands of tiny, battery-powered computers, often
called "motes," are scattered throughout a physical environment. Silently and wirelessly, each
mote in this ad hoc network collects data, for instance, monitoring light, temperature, humidity,
vibration or other environmental factors. The mote relays the collected data to its neighboring
motes and then to a specified destination where it is processed. This sensory input, when
gathered from all the motes and analyzed by more traditional computers, paints a comprehensive,
high-resolution picture of the surroundings in real time.

Essentially, the ability to sense, compute and communicate. Despite their complex
functionality, motes have just three key hardware components: microprocessors, tiny
microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and low-power radios (also called transceivers). The
microprocessors process the data, the MEMS sensors provide a broad array of sensory inputs,
and the radios enable the motes to wirelessly transmit their sensor readings throughout the
network. New software enables the raw data collected by the sensors to be analyzed in various
ways before it leaves the network, ensuring a proactive stream of information that can be acted
upon in real time.

Standard consumer AA or coin-style batteries keep motes "alive" for six months to a
year, and researchers are exploring other sources of power to further shrink size and extend
longevity. Although the size, type and configuration of motes in a sensor network depend largely
on the application, common design constraints include power conservation, compact form factor
and limited memory and storage capacity. Moreover, motes must be reasonably economical to be
suitable for practical applications.
 Fortunately, microprocessors, sensors and RF transceivers can be inexpensively produced
in large quantities using conventional semiconductor manufacturing techniques The combination
of small size, low cost and wireless networking functionality makes sensor network technology
exceptionally scalable. As price points become more attractive, scientists will be able to deploy
many sensors simultaneously, with better proximity to the physical phenomena being monitored
and more detailed tracking than has heretofore been possible, leading to ubiquitous computing.

With markets reeling, businesses and investors are relying on the public sector more than
ever to set the priorities to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship that will lead to an
economic recovery.  As a key technology in government’s major initiatives, investment in
Wireless Sensor Including both public and private sources, wireless sensor network R&D
spending will reach $1.3 billion in 2012, up from $522 million in 2007. A few of the wireless
sensor network research programs with hundreds of millions in funding include:

 EU's Ambient Assisted Living US's National Science Foundation

 South Korea's Ubiquitous Sensor Networks.
 DARPA SENSIT program, U.S.
 NEST, Malaysia.

The development of wireless sensor networks was originally motivated by military

applications such as battlefield surveillance. Nowadays, wireless sensor networks are used and
been implemented in many various sector such as:

 Industrial process monitoring and control

 Machine health monitoring,
 Environment, agriculture and habitat monitoring,
 Healthcare applications,
 Home automation,
 Traffic control.
4.0 Commercially Available Wireless Sensor Systems

Many commercially available wireless communications nodes are available including Lynx
Technologies, and various Bluetooth kits, including the Casira devices from Cambridge Silicon
Radio, CSR.
Crossbow Berkeley Motes may be the most versatile wireless sensor network devices on the
market for prototyping purposes. Crossbow makes three Mote processor radio module families–
MICA [MPR300] (first generation), MICA2 [MPR400] and MICA2-DOT [MPR500] (second
generation). Nodes come with five sensors installed- Temperature, Light, Acoustic
(Microphone), Acceleration/Seismic, and Magnetic. These are especially suitable for
surveillance networks for personnel and vehicles. Different sensors can be installed if desired.
Low power and small physical size enable placement virtually anywhere.

Since all sensor nodes in a network can act as base stations, the network can self configure and
has multi-hop routing capabilities. The operating frequency is ISM band, either 916Mhz or 433
MHz, with a data rate of 40 Kbits/sec. and a range of 30 ft to 100 ft. Each node has a low power
microcontroller processor with speed of 4MHz, a flash memory with 128 Kbytes, and SRAM
and EEPROM of 4K bytes each. The operating system is Tiny-OS, a tiny micro-threading
distributed operating system developed by UC Berkeley, with a NES-C source code language.

Microstrain’s X-Link Measurement System may be the easiest system to get up and running and
to program. The frequency used is 916 MHz, which lies in the US license-free ISM band. The
sensor nodes are multi-channel, with a maximum of 8 sensors supported by a single wireless
node. There are three types of sensor nodes – S-link (strain gauge), G-link (accelerometer), and
V-link (supports any sensors generating voltage differences). The sensor nodes have a pre-
programmed EPROM, so a great deal of programming by the user is not needed. Onboard data
storage is 2MB. Sensor nodes use a 3.6-volt lithium ion internal battery.
5.0 Wireless Network Sensor in Malaysia

Like others developing country, Malaysia needed to cope with the latest technology and
development. Local university such as Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
Universiti Teknologi Mara and Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka has conducted some
research according to this wireless sensor network technology. The need of this technology are
based on Malaysia 2020 vision, where Malaysia need to move towards a knowledge based
society and economy where ICT as a driver for restructuring of economy and employment. The
interest of Wireless sensor technology is shown by Malaysia government by including this
technology as one of the 3 main infrastructures to be focused in Malaysia 9th plan (RMk-9).

By this encouragement, the National Centre of Excellence for Sensor Technology

(NEST) is established. Located at UPM, NEST will provide advice to the government on the
promotion of this technology in the country. NEST also developed the WSN Roadmap,
Knowledge Repository, Training Modules, and identified a few application areas for to
implement wireless network sensor such as precision agriculture, slope monitoring, logistics and
transport

The interest of Wireless Network Sensor in Malaysia now can be seen in agriculture. This
technology has been used to initiate a large scale farms. It has been demonstrates the feasibility
of wireless network sensor in an oil palm plantation. This are archive by the development of
MEMS sensors by MIMOS for use in agriculture. MEMS sensors can sense soil contents,
humidity and it’s operated wirelessly by using radio frequency.

Envision the argiculture as an end to end solution, from farm to knowledge base. The
knowledge base through wireless sensor network is gathered to provide information and decision
for good farm management. This will help to transform traditional farmers to more advanced
agronomist.
 There are some activities has been done at several different type of farms and the application
of the wireless sensor network has been valued. Below is some of the usage of Wireless sensor
network in agriculture in Malaysia.

Farm types Usage of Wireless Network Sensor .

 Tomatoes & Chilies farm – Fertilizer, soil condition humidity monitoring and control.

 Oil Palm – Nitride level (fertilizer),

 Paddy fields – Land leveling, water leveling, fertilizer

6.0 Conclusion

Wireless sensor network are essential in the development of information technology. It

has many usage and can been applied according to each sector need. Many develop country has
started using this wireless sensor network to their country. Either for military, conservation or
economy, wireless network sensors now have been the key to improve the existing technology.
However, there are still disadvantages or difficulties for applying this technology such as
high cost issue and limited power for sensor. That’s why this newborn technology needed more
research and development to fulfill all the needs in future. As we seen, Malaysia also has
applying this wireless network sensor. Although the usage it’s still low, more interest from
private sector would help the growth of this technology in Malaysia. Our local university also
has shown the interest in this technology. With a proper funding and initiative, Malaysia would
become one of the countries that produce this technology.

7.0 Reference

 [Link]
 Kazem Sohraby, Daniel Minoli, Taieb Znati, Wireless Sensor Networks: Technology,
Protocols, and Applications (2008), Wiley.
 National Centre of Excellence for Sensor Technology (NEST), 28th APAN Meeting,
Kuala Lumpur 20-23 July, 2009