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Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things

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Special Issue Information
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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Sensor Networks".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2014) | Viewed by 396168

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Luciano Lavagno

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy
Interests: design and applications of wireless sensor networks; design methods and tools for embedded systems; high-level synthesis of digital hardware; asynchronous circuits
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Mihai T. Lazarescu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Politecnico di Torino, 24, 10129 Torino TO, Italy
Interests: reusable WSN/IoT platforms; sensing, indoor localization, and data processing for IoT; design for low power; embedded machine learning and neural networks; high-level HW/SW co-design; high-level synthesis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since first coined 15 years ago, the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm has continuously expanded to cover applications in many daily life settings. The paradigm now encompasses several technologies beyond RFID and WSNs, while the Internet pervasiveness continuously rises our expectations of permanent interaction with the physical environment, both local and remote.

Nevertheless, many issues still hinder the widespread adoption of the IoT paradigm. They include, for instance, cost, security and privacy, perceived reliability, maintenance, efficient data aggregation and processing.

The aim of this special issue is to bring together innovative developments in areas related to WSNs and IoT, including but not limited to:

cost (of node, energy, development, deployment, maintenance)
energy (reliability, management)
communication (security, resilience, low energy)
adaptability (to environment, energy, faults)
data processing (on nodes, distributed, aggregation, discovery, big data)
self-learning (pattern discovery, prediction, auto-configuration)
deployment (cost, error prevention, localization)
high-level methods and tools for node and application design
maintenance (troubleshooting, recurrent costs)
applications (both new and enjoying new life)

Both review articles and original research papers relating to WSN and IoT are solicited. There is particular interest for papers with advances towards overcoming the adoption barriers for WSN and IoT.

Dr. Luciano Lavagno
Dr. Mihai T. Lazarescu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

wireless sensor networks
internet of things
communication
learning
distributed processing
localization
sensing
energy management

Published Papers (46 papers)

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Research

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4895 KiB

Open AccessArticle

WSN- and IOT-Based Smart Homes and Their Extension to Smart Buildings

by Hemant Ghayvat, Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Xiang Gui and Nagender Suryadevara

Sensors 2015, 15(5), 10350-10379; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150510350 - 04 May 2015

Cited by 292 | Viewed by 23141

Our research approach is to design and develop reliable, efficient, flexible, economical, real-time and realistic wellness sensor networks for smart home systems. The heterogeneous sensor and actuator nodes based on wireless networking technologies are deployed into the home environment. These nodes generate real-time [...] Read more.

Our research approach is to design and develop reliable, efficient, flexible, economical, real-time and realistic wellness sensor networks for smart home systems. The heterogeneous sensor and actuator nodes based on wireless networking technologies are deployed into the home environment. These nodes generate real-time data related to the object usage and movement inside the home, to forecast the wellness of an individual. Here, wellness stands for how efficiently someone stays fit in the home environment and performs his or her daily routine in order to live a long and healthy life. We initiate the research with the development of the smart home approach and implement it in different home conditions (different houses) to monitor the activity of an inhabitant for wellness detection. Additionally, our research extends the smart home system to smart buildings and models the design issues related to the smart building environment; these design issues are linked with system performance and reliability. This research paper also discusses and illustrates the possible mitigation to handle the ISM band interference and attenuation losses without compromising optimum system performance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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449 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Adaptive Control of the Packet Transmission Period with Solar Energy Harvesting Prediction in Wireless Sensor Networks

by Kideok Kwon, Jihoon Yang and Younghwan Yoo

Sensors 2015, 15(5), 9741-9755; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150509741 - 24 Apr 2015

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 5748

A number of research works has studied packet scheduling policies in energy scavenging wireless sensor networks, based on the predicted amount of harvested energy. Most of them aim to achieve energy neutrality, which means that an embedded system can operate perpetually while meeting [...] Read more.

A number of research works has studied packet scheduling policies in energy scavenging wireless sensor networks, based on the predicted amount of harvested energy. Most of them aim to achieve energy neutrality, which means that an embedded system can operate perpetually while meeting application requirements. Unlike other renewable energy sources, solar energy has the feature of distinct periodicity in the amount of harvested energy over a day. Using this feature, this paper proposes a packet transmission control policy that can enhance the network performance while keeping sensor nodes alive. Furthermore, this paper suggests a novel solar energy prediction method that exploits the relation between cloudiness and solar radiation. The experimental results and analyses show that the proposed packet transmission policy outperforms others in terms of the deadline miss rate and data throughput. Furthermore, the proposed solar energy prediction method can predict more accurately than others by 6.92%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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1474 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design and Field Test of a WSN Platform Prototype for Long-Term Environmental Monitoring

by Mihai T. Lazarescu

Sensors 2015, 15(4), 9481-9518; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150409481 - 22 Apr 2015

Cited by 43 | Viewed by 9065

Long-term wildfire monitoring using distributed in situ temperature sensors is an accurate, yet demanding environmental monitoring application, which requires long-life, low-maintenance, low-cost sensors and a simple, fast, error-proof deployment procedure. We present in this paper the most important design considerations and optimizations of [...] Read more.

Long-term wildfire monitoring using distributed in situ temperature sensors is an accurate, yet demanding environmental monitoring application, which requires long-life, low-maintenance, low-cost sensors and a simple, fast, error-proof deployment procedure. We present in this paper the most important design considerations and optimizations of all elements of a low-cost WSN platform prototype for long-term, low-maintenance pervasive wildfire monitoring, its preparation for a nearly three-month field test, the analysis of the causes of failure during the test and the lessons learned for platform improvement. The main components of the total cost of the platform (nodes, deployment and maintenance) are carefully analyzed and optimized for this application. The gateways are designed to operate with resources that are generally used for sensor nodes, while the requirements and cost of the sensor nodes are significantly lower. We define and test in simulation and in the field experiment a simple, but effective communication protocol for this application. It helps to lower the cost of the nodes and field deployment procedure, while extending the theoretical lifetime of the sensor nodes to over 16 years on a single 1 Ah lithium battery. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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5857 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Congestion Based Mechanism for Route Discovery in a V2I-V2V System Applying Smart Devices and IoT

by Natalia Parrado and Yezid Donoso

Sensors 2015, 15(4), 7768-7806; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150407768 - 31 Mar 2015

Cited by 24 | Viewed by 11503

The Internet of Things is a new paradigm in which objects in a specific context can be integrated into traditional communication networks to actively participate in solving a determined problem. The Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) technologies are specific cases of IoT and [...] Read more.

The Internet of Things is a new paradigm in which objects in a specific context can be integrated into traditional communication networks to actively participate in solving a determined problem. The Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) technologies are specific cases of IoT and key enablers for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). V2V and V2I have been widely used to solve different problems associated with transportation in cities, in which the most important is traffic congestion. A high percentage of congestion is usually presented by the inappropriate use of resources in vehicular infrastructure. In addition, the integration of traffic congestion in decision making for vehicular traffic is a challenge due to its high dynamic behavior. In this paper, an optimization model over the load balancing in the congestion percentage of the streets is formulated. Later, we explore a fully congestion-oriented route discovery mechanism and we make a proposal on the communication infrastructure that should support it based on V2I and V2V communication. The mechanism is also compared with a modified Dijkstra’s approach that reacts at congestion states. Finally, we compare the results of the efficiency of the vehicle’s trip with the efficiency in the use of the capacity of the vehicular network. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

On the Routing Protocol Influence on the Resilience of Wireless Sensor Networks to Jamming Attacks

by Carolina Del-Valle-Soto, Carlos Mex-Perera, Raul Monroy and Juan Arturo Nolazco-Flores

Sensors 2015, 15(4), 7619-7649; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150407619 - 27 Mar 2015

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 6965

In this work, we compare a recently proposed routing protocol, the multi-parent hierarchical (MPH) protocol, with two well-known protocols, the ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) and dynamic source routing (DSR). For this purpose, we have developed a simulator, which faithfully reifies the [...] Read more.

In this work, we compare a recently proposed routing protocol, the multi-parent hierarchical (MPH) protocol, with two well-known protocols, the ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) and dynamic source routing (DSR). For this purpose, we have developed a simulator, which faithfully reifies the workings of a given protocol, considering a fixed, reconfigurable ad hoc network given by the number and location of participants, and general network conditions. We consider a scenario that can be found in a large number of wireless sensor network applications, a single sink node that collects all of the information generated by the sensors. The metrics used to compare the protocols were the number of packet retransmissions, carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) inner loop retries, the number of nodes answering the queries from the coordinator (sink) node and the energy consumption. We tested the network under ordinary (without attacks) conditions (and combinations thereof) and when it is subject to different types of jamming attacks (in particular, random and reactive jamming attacks), considering several positions for the jammer. Our results report that MPH has a greater ability to tolerate such attacks than DSR and AODV, since it minimizes and encapsulates the network segment under attack. The self-configuring capabilities of MPH derived from a combination of a proactive routes update, on a periodic-time basis, and a reactive behavior provide higher resilience while offering a better performance (overhead and energy consumption) than AODV and DSR, as shown in our simulation results. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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937 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Distributed Transmission Rate Adjustment Algorithm in Heterogeneous CSMA/CA Networks

by Shuanglong Xie, Kay Soon Low and Erry Gunawan

Sensors 2015, 15(4), 7434-7453; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150407434 - 26 Mar 2015

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5338

Distributed transmission rate tuning is important for a wide variety of IEEE 802.15.4 network applications such as industrial network control systems. Such systems often require each node to sustain certain throughput demand in order to guarantee the system performance. It is thus essential [...] Read more.

Distributed transmission rate tuning is important for a wide variety of IEEE 802.15.4 network applications such as industrial network control systems. Such systems often require each node to sustain certain throughput demand in order to guarantee the system performance. It is thus essential to determine a proper transmission rate that can meet the application requirement and compensate for network imperfections (e.g., packet loss). Such a tuning in a heterogeneous network is difficult due to the lack of modeling techniques that can deal with the heterogeneity of the network as well as the network traffic changes. In this paper, a distributed transmission rate tuning algorithm in a heterogeneous IEEE 802.15.4 CSMA/CA network is proposed. Each node uses the results of clear channel assessment (CCA) to estimate the busy channel probability. Then a mathematical framework is developed to estimate the on-going heterogeneous traffics using the busy channel probability at runtime. Finally a distributed algorithm is derived to tune the transmission rate of each node to accurately meet the throughput requirement. The algorithm does not require modifications on IEEE 802.15.4 MAC layer and it has been experimentally implemented and extensively tested using TelosB nodes with the TinyOS protocol stack. The results reveal that the algorithm is accurate and can satisfy the throughput demand. Compared with existing techniques, the algorithm is fully distributed and thus does not require any central coordination. With this property, it is able to adapt to traffic changes and re-adjust the transmission rate to the desired level, which cannot be achieved using the traditional modeling techniques. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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1746 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Open Hardware: A Role to Play in Wireless Sensor Networks?

by Roy Fisher, Lehlogonolo Ledwaba, Gerhard Hancke and Carel Kruger

Sensors 2015, 15(3), 6818-6844; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150306818 - 20 Mar 2015

Cited by 74 | Viewed by 9739

The concept of the Internet of Things is rapidly becoming a reality, with many applications being deployed within industrial and consumer sectors. At the ‘thing’ level—devices and inter-device network communication—the core technical building blocks are generally the same as those found in wireless [...] Read more.

The concept of the Internet of Things is rapidly becoming a reality, with many applications being deployed within industrial and consumer sectors. At the ‘thing’ level—devices and inter-device network communication—the core technical building blocks are generally the same as those found in wireless sensor network implementations. For the Internet of Things to continue growing, we need more plentiful resources for building intelligent devices and sensor networks. Unfortunately, current commercial devices, e.g., sensor nodes and network gateways, tend to be expensive and proprietary, which presents a barrier to entry and arguably slows down further development. There are, however, an increasing number of open embedded platforms available and also a wide selection of off-the-shelf components that can quickly and easily be built into device and network gateway solutions. The question is whether these solutions measure up to built-for-purpose devices. In the paper, we provide a comparison of existing built-for-purpose devices against open source devices. For comparison, we have also designed and rapidly prototyped a sensor node based on off-the-shelf components. We show that these devices compare favorably to built-for-purpose devices in terms of performance, power and cost. Using open platforms and off-the-shelf components would allow more developers to build intelligent devices and sensor networks, which could result in a better overall development ecosystem, lower barriers to entry and rapid growth in the number of IoT applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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909 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sensing in the Collaborative Internet of Things

by João B. Borges Neto, Thiago H. Silva, Renato Martins Assunção, Raquel A. F. Mini and Antonio A. F. Loureiro

Sensors 2015, 15(3), 6607-6632; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150306607 - 19 Mar 2015

Cited by 26 | Viewed by 8334

We are entering a new era of computing technology, the era of Internet of Things (IoT). An important element for this popularization is the large use of off-the-shelf sensors. Most of those sensors will be deployed by different owners, generally common users, creating [...] Read more.

We are entering a new era of computing technology, the era of Internet of Things (IoT). An important element for this popularization is the large use of off-the-shelf sensors. Most of those sensors will be deployed by different owners, generally common users, creating what we call the Collaborative IoT. This collaborative IoT helps to increase considerably the amount and availability of collected data for different purposes, creating new interesting opportunities, but also several challenges. For example, it is very challenging to search for and select a desired sensor or a group of sensors when there is no description about the provided sensed data or when it is imprecise. Given that, in this work we characterize the properties of the sensed data in the Internet of Things, mainly the sensed data contributed by several sources, including sensors from common users. We conclude that, in order to safely use data available in the IoT, we need a filtering process to increase the data reliability. In this direction, we propose a new simple and powerful approach that helps to select reliable sensors. We tested our method for different types of sensed data, and the results reveal the effectiveness in the correct selection of sensor data. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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7554 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Optimization Based Dynamic and Cyclic Working Strategies for Rechargeable Wireless Sensor Networks with Multiple Base Stations and Wireless Energy Transfer Devices

by Xu Ding, Jianghong Han and Lei Shi

Sensors 2015, 15(3), 6270-6305; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150306270 - 16 Mar 2015

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 6128

In this paper, the optimal working schemes for wireless sensor networks with multiple base stations and wireless energy transfer devices are proposed. The wireless energy transfer devices also work as data gatherers while charging sensor nodes. The wireless sensor network is firstly divided [...] Read more.

In this paper, the optimal working schemes for wireless sensor networks with multiple base stations and wireless energy transfer devices are proposed. The wireless energy transfer devices also work as data gatherers while charging sensor nodes. The wireless sensor network is firstly divided into sub networks according to the concept of Voronoi diagram. Then, the entire energy replenishing procedure is split into the pre-normal and normal energy replenishing stages. With the objective of maximizing the sojourn time ratio of the wireless energy transfer device, a continuous time optimization problem for the normal energy replenishing cycle is formed according to constraints with which sensor nodes and wireless energy transfer devices should comply. Later on, the continuous time optimization problem is reshaped into a discrete multi-phased optimization problem, which yields the identical optimality. After linearizing it, we obtain a linear programming problem that can be solved efficiently. The working strategies of both sensor nodes and wireless energy transfer devices in the pre-normal replenishing stage are also discussed in this paper. The intensive simulations exhibit the dynamic and cyclic working schemes for the entire energy replenishing procedure. Additionally, a way of eliminating “bottleneck” sensor nodes is also developed in this paper. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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1518 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Color Filtering Localization for Three-Dimensional Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

by Zhihua Liu, Han Gao, Wuling Wang, Shuai Chang and Jiaxing Chen

Sensors 2015, 15(3), 6009-6032; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150306009 - 12 Mar 2015

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 5723

Accurate localization of mobile nodes has been an important and fundamental problem in underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs). The detection information returned from a mobile node is meaningful only if its location is known. In this paper, we propose two localization algorithms based [...] Read more.

Accurate localization of mobile nodes has been an important and fundamental problem in underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs). The detection information returned from a mobile node is meaningful only if its location is known. In this paper, we propose two localization algorithms based on color filtering technology called PCFL and ACFL. PCFL and ACFL aim at collaboratively accomplishing accurate localization of underwater mobile nodes with minimum energy expenditure. They both adopt the overlapping signal region of task anchors which can communicate with the mobile node directly as the current sampling area. PCFL employs the projected distances between each of the task projections and the mobile node, while ACFL adopts the direct distance between each of the task anchors and the mobile node. The proportion factor of distance is also proposed to weight the RGB values. By comparing the nearness degrees of the RGB sequences between the samples and the mobile node, samples can be filtered out. The normalized nearness degrees are considered as the weighted standards to calculate the coordinates of the mobile nodes. The simulation results show that the proposed methods have excellent localization performance and can localize the mobile node in a timely way. The average localization error of PCFL is decreased by about 30.4% compared to the AFLA method. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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3839 KiB

Open AccessArticle

SEnviro: A Sensorized Platform Proposal Using Open Hardware and Open Standards

by Sergio Trilles, Alejandro Luján, Óscar Belmonte, Raúl Montoliu, Joaquín Torres-Sospedra and Joaquín Huerta

Sensors 2015, 15(3), 5555-5582; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150305555 - 06 Mar 2015

Cited by 38 | Viewed by 10991

The need for constant monitoring of environmental conditions has produced an increase in the development of wireless sensor networks (WSN). The drive towards smart cities has produced the need for smart sensors to be able to monitor what is happening in our cities. [...] Read more.

The need for constant monitoring of environmental conditions has produced an increase in the development of wireless sensor networks (WSN). The drive towards smart cities has produced the need for smart sensors to be able to monitor what is happening in our cities. This, combined with the decrease in hardware component prices and the increase in the popularity of open hardware, has favored the deployment of sensor networks based on open hardware. The new trends in Internet Protocol (IP) communication between sensor nodes allow sensor access via the Internet, turning them into smart objects (Internet of Things and Web of Things). Currently, WSNs provide data in different formats. There is a lack of communication protocol standardization, which turns into interoperability issues when connecting different sensor networks or even when connecting different sensor nodes within the same network. This work presents a sensorized platform proposal that adheres to the principles of the Internet of Things and theWeb of Things. Wireless sensor nodes were built using open hardware solutions, and communications rely on the HTTP/IP Internet protocols. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) SensorThings API candidate standard was used as a neutral format to avoid interoperability issues. An environmental WSN developed following the proposed architecture was built as a proof of concept. Details on how to build each node and a study regarding energy concerns are presented. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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1098 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dynamic Reconfiguration of Security Policies in Wireless Sensor Networks

by Mónica Pinto, Nadia Gámez, Lidia Fuentes, Mercedes Amor, José Miguel Horcas and Inmaculada Ayala

Sensors 2015, 15(3), 5251-5280; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150305251 - 04 Mar 2015

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 7155

Providing security and privacy to wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) is very challenging, due to the heterogeneity of sensor nodes and their limited capabilities in terms of energy, processing power and memory. The applications for these systems run in a myriad of sensors with [...] Read more.

Providing security and privacy to wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) is very challenging, due to the heterogeneity of sensor nodes and their limited capabilities in terms of energy, processing power and memory. The applications for these systems run in a myriad of sensors with different low-level programming abstractions, limited capabilities and different routing protocols. This means that applications for WSNs need mechanisms for self-adaptation and for self-protection based on the dynamic adaptation of the algorithms used to provide security. Dynamic software product lines (DSPLs) allow managing both variability and dynamic software adaptation, so they can be considered a key technology in successfully developing self-protected WSN applications. In this paper, we propose a self-protection solution for WSNs based on the combination of the INTER-TRUST security framework (a solution for the dynamic negotiation and deployment of security policies) and the FamiWare middleware (a DSPL approach to automatically configure and reconfigure instances of a middleware for WSNs).We evaluate our approach using a case study from the intelligent transportation system domain. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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725 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sub-Sampling Framework Comparison for Low-Power Data Gathering: A Comparative Analysis

by Bojan Milosevic, Carlo Caione, Elisabetta Farella, Davide Brunelli and Luca Benini

Sensors 2015, 15(3), 5058-5080; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150305058 - 02 Mar 2015

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 6410

A key design challenge for successful wireless sensor network (WSN) deployment is a good balance between the collected data resolution and the overall energy consumption. In this paper, we present a WSN solution developed to efficiently satisfy the requirements for long-term monitoring of [...] Read more.

A key design challenge for successful wireless sensor network (WSN) deployment is a good balance between the collected data resolution and the overall energy consumption. In this paper, we present a WSN solution developed to efficiently satisfy the requirements for long-term monitoring of a historical building. The hardware of the sensor nodes and the network deployment are described and used to collect the data. To improve the network’s energy efficiency, we developed and compared two approaches, sharing similar sub-sampling strategies and data reconstruction assumptions: one is based on compressive sensing (CS) and the second is a custom data-driven latent variable-based statistical model (LV). Both approaches take advantage of the multivariate nature of the data collected by a heterogeneous sensor network and reduce the sampling frequency at sub-Nyquist levels. Our comparative analysis highlights the advantages and limitations: signal reconstruction performance is assessed jointly with network-level energy reduction. The performed experiments include detailed performance and energy measurements on the deployed network and explore how the different parameters can affect the overall data accuracy and the energy consumption. The results show how the CS approach achieves better reconstruction accuracy and overall efficiency, with the exception of cases with really aggressive sub-sampling policies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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1599 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Refrigerated Fruit Storage Monitoring Combining Two Different Wireless Sensing Technologies: RFID and WSN

by Ricardo Badia-Melis, Luis Ruiz-Garcia, Javier Garcia-Hierro and Jose I. Robla Villalba

Sensors 2015, 15(3), 4781-4795; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150304781 - 26 Feb 2015

Cited by 74 | Viewed by 10374

Every day, millions of tons of temperature-sensitive goods are produced, transported, stored or distributed worldwide, thus making their temperature and humidity control essential. Quality control and monitoring of goods during the cold chain is an increasing concern for producers, suppliers, logistic decision makers [...] Read more.

Every day, millions of tons of temperature-sensitive goods are produced, transported, stored or distributed worldwide, thus making their temperature and humidity control essential. Quality control and monitoring of goods during the cold chain is an increasing concern for producers, suppliers, logistic decision makers and consumers. In this paper we present the results of a combination of RFID and WSN devices in a set of studies performed in three commercial wholesale chambers of 1848 m³ with different set points and products. Up to 90 semi-passive RFID temperature loggers were installed simultaneously together with seven motes, during one week in each chamber. 3D temperature mapping charts were obtained and also the psychrometric data model from ASABE was implemented for the calculation of enthalpy changes and the absolute water content of air. Thus thank to the feedback of data, between RFID and WSN it is possible to estimate energy consumption in the cold room, water loss from the products and detect any condensation over the stored commodities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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1546 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Architecture of a Service-Enabled Sensing Platform for the Environment

by Alexander Kotsev, Francesco Pantisano, Sven Schade and Simon Jirka

Sensors 2015, 15(2), 4470-4495; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150204470 - 13 Feb 2015

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 8244

Recent technological advancements have led to the production of arrays of miniaturized sensors, often embedded in existing multitasking devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets) and using a wide range of radio standards (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 4G cellular networks). Altogether, these technological evolutions coupled with the [...] Read more.

Recent technological advancements have led to the production of arrays of miniaturized sensors, often embedded in existing multitasking devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets) and using a wide range of radio standards (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 4G cellular networks). Altogether, these technological evolutions coupled with the diffusion of ubiquitous Internet connectivity provide the base-line technology for the Internet of Things (IoT). The rapid increase of IoT devices is enabling the definition of new paradigms of data collection and introduces the concept of mobile crowd-sensing. In this respect, new sensing methodologies promise to extend the current understanding of the environment and social behaviors by leveraging citizen-contributed data for a wide range of applications. Environmental sensing can however only be successful if all the heterogeneous technologies and infrastructures work smoothly together. As a result, the interconnection and orchestration of devices is one of the central issues of the IoT paradigm. With this in mind, we propose an approach for improving the accessibility of observation data, based on interoperable standards and on-device web services. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

A Soft-Hard Combination-Based Cooperative Spectrum Sensing Scheme for Cognitive Radio Networks

by Nhu Tri Do and Beongku An

Sensors 2015, 15(2), 4388-4407; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150204388 - 13 Feb 2015

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 6731

In this paper we propose a soft-hard combination scheme, called SHC scheme, for cooperative spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks. The SHC scheme deploys a cluster based network in which Likelihood Ratio Test (LRT)-based soft combination is applied at each cluster, and weighted [...] Read more.

In this paper we propose a soft-hard combination scheme, called SHC scheme, for cooperative spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks. The SHC scheme deploys a cluster based network in which Likelihood Ratio Test (LRT)-based soft combination is applied at each cluster, and weighted decision fusion rule-based hard combination is utilized at the fusion center. The novelties of the SHC scheme are as follows: the structure of the SHC scheme reduces the complexity of cooperative detection which is an inherent limitation of soft combination schemes. By using the LRT, we can detect primary signals in a low signal-to-noise ratio regime (around an average of −15 dB). In addition, the computational complexity of the LRT is reduced since we derive the closed-form expression of the probability density function of LRT value. The SHC scheme also takes into account the different effects of large scale fading on different users in the wide area network. The simulation results show that the SHC scheme not only provides the better sensing performance compared to the conventional hard combination schemes, but also reduces sensing overhead in terms of reporting time compared to the conventional soft combination scheme using the LRT. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Modeling and Analysis of Reservation Frame Slotted-ALOHA in Wireless Machine-to-Machine Area Networks for Data Collection

by Francisco Vázquez-Gallego, Luis Alonso and Jesus Alonso-Zarate

Sensors 2015, 15(2), 3911-3931; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150203911 - 09 Feb 2015

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 6690

Reservation frame slotted-ALOHA (RFSA) was proposed in the past to manage the access to the wireless channel when devices generate long messages fragmented into small packets. In this paper, we consider an M2M area network composed of end-devices that periodically respond to the [...] Read more.

Reservation frame slotted-ALOHA (RFSA) was proposed in the past to manage the access to the wireless channel when devices generate long messages fragmented into small packets. In this paper, we consider an M2M area network composed of end-devices that periodically respond to the requests from a gateway with the transmission of fragmented messages. The idle network is suddenly set into saturation, having all end-devices attempting to get access to the channel simultaneously. This has been referred to as delta traffic. While previous works analyze the throughput of RFSA in steady-state conditions, assuming that traffic is generated following random distributions, the performance of RFSA under delta traffic has never received attention. In this paper, we propose a theoretical model to calculate the average delay and energy consumption required to resolve the contention under delta traffic using RFSA.We have carried out computer-based simulations to validate the accuracy of the theoretical model and to compare the performance for RFSA and FSA. Results show that there is an optimal frame length that minimizes delay and energy consumption and which depends on the number of end-devices. In addition, it is shown that RFSA reduces the energy consumed per end-device by more than 50% with respect to FSA under delta traffic. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Relative Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks for Measurement of Electric Fields under HVDC Transmission Lines

by Yong Cui, Qiusheng Wang, Haiwen Yuan, Xiao Song, Xuemin Hu and Luxing Zhao

Sensors 2015, 15(2), 3540-3564; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150203540 - 04 Feb 2015

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 6438

In the wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for electric field measurement system under the High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission lines, it is necessary to obtain the electric field distribution with multiple sensors. The location information of each sensor is essential to the correct analysis [...] Read more.

In the wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for electric field measurement system under the High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission lines, it is necessary to obtain the electric field distribution with multiple sensors. The location information of each sensor is essential to the correct analysis of measurement results. Compared with the existing approach which gathers the location information by manually labelling sensors during deployment, the automatic localization can reduce the workload and improve the measurement efficiency. A novel and practical range-free localization algorithm for the localization of one-dimensional linear topology wireless networks in the electric field measurement system is presented. The algorithm utilizes unknown nodes’ neighbor lists based on the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) values to determine the relative locations of nodes. The algorithm is able to handle the exceptional situation of the output permutation which can effectively improve the accuracy of localization. The performance of this algorithm under real circumstances has been evaluated through several experiments with different numbers of nodes and different node deployments in the China State Grid HVDC test base. Results show that the proposed algorithm achieves an accuracy of over 96% under different conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

CENTERA: A Centralized Trust-Based Efficient Routing Protocol with Authentication for Wireless Sensor Networks

by Ayman Tajeddine, Ayman Kayssi, Ali Chehab, Imad Elhajj and Wassim Itani

Sensors 2015, 15(2), 3299-3333; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150203299 - 02 Feb 2015

Cited by 35 | Viewed by 5664

In this paper, we present CENTERA, a CENtralized Trust-based Efficient Routing protocol with an appropriate authentication scheme for wireless sensor networks (WSN). CENTERA utilizes the more powerful base station (BS) to gather minimal neighbor trust information from nodes and calculate the best routes [...] Read more.

In this paper, we present CENTERA, a CENtralized Trust-based Efficient Routing protocol with an appropriate authentication scheme for wireless sensor networks (WSN). CENTERA utilizes the more powerful base station (BS) to gather minimal neighbor trust information from nodes and calculate the best routes after isolating different types of “bad” nodes. By periodically accumulating these simple local observations and approximating the nodes’ battery lives, the BS draws a global view of the network, calculates three quality metrics—maliciousness, cooperation, and compatibility—and evaluates the Data Trust and Forwarding Trust values of each node. Based on these metrics, the BS isolates “bad”, “misbehaving” or malicious nodes for a certain period, and put some nodes on probation. CENTERA increases the node’s bad/probation level with repeated “bad” behavior, and decreases it otherwise. Then it uses a very efficient method to distribute the routing information to “good” nodes. Based on its target environment, and if required, CENTERA uses an authentication scheme suitable for severely constrained nodes, ranging from the symmetric RC5 for safe environments under close administration, to pairing-based cryptography (PBC) for hostile environments with a strong attacker model. We simulate CENTERA using TOSSIM and verify its correctness and show some energy calculations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Sensor Data Security Level Estimation Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

by Alex Ramos and Raimir Holanda Filho

Sensors 2015, 15(1), 2104-2136; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150102104 - 19 Jan 2015

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 7667

Due to their increasing dissemination, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become the target of more and more sophisticated attacks, even capable of circumventing both attack detection and prevention mechanisms. This may cause WSN users, who totally trust these security mechanisms, to think that [...] Read more.

Due to their increasing dissemination, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become the target of more and more sophisticated attacks, even capable of circumventing both attack detection and prevention mechanisms. This may cause WSN users, who totally trust these security mechanisms, to think that a sensor reading is secure, even when an adversary has corrupted it. For that reason, a scheme capable of estimating the security level (SL) that these mechanisms provide to sensor data is needed, so that users can be aware of the actual security state of this data and can make better decisions on its use. However, existing security estimation schemes proposed for WSNs fully ignore detection mechanisms and analyze solely the security provided by prevention mechanisms. In this context, this work presents the sensor data security estimator (SDSE), a new comprehensive security estimation scheme for WSNs. SDSE is designed for estimating the sensor data security level based on security metrics that analyze both attack prevention and detection mechanisms. In order to validate our proposed scheme, we have carried out extensive simulations that show the high accuracy of SDSE estimates. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Latency Performance of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Networks

by Keuchul Cho, Woojin Park, Moonki Hong, Gisu Park, Wooseong Cho, Jihoon Seo and Kijun Han

Sensors 2015, 15(1), 59-78; https://doi.org/10.3390/s150100059 - 23 Dec 2014

Cited by 90 | Viewed by 14890

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is a short-range wireless communication technology aiming at low-cost and low-power communication. The performance evaluation of classical Bluetooth device discovery have been intensively studied using analytical modeling and simulative methods, but these techniques are not applicable to BLE, since [...] Read more.

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is a short-range wireless communication technology aiming at low-cost and low-power communication. The performance evaluation of classical Bluetooth device discovery have been intensively studied using analytical modeling and simulative methods, but these techniques are not applicable to BLE, since BLE has a fundamental change in the design of the discovery mechanism, including the usage of three advertising channels. Recently, there several works have analyzed the topic of BLE device discovery, but these studies are still far from thorough. It is thus necessary to develop a new, accurate model for the BLE discovery process. In particular, the wide range settings of the parameters introduce lots of potential for BLE devices to customize their discovery performance. This motivates our study of modeling the BLE discovery process and performing intensive simulation. This paper is focused on building an analytical model to investigate the discovery probability, as well as the expected discovery latency, which are then validated via extensive experiments. Our analysis considers both continuous and discontinuous scanning modes. We analyze the sensitivity of these performance metrics to parameter settings to quantitatively examine to what extent parameters influence the performance metric of the discovery processes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

A Malicious Pattern Detection Engine for Embedded Security Systems in the Internet of Things

by Doohwan Oh, Deokho Kim and Won Woo Ro

Sensors 2014, 14(12), 24188-24211; https://doi.org/10.3390/s141224188 - 16 Dec 2014

Cited by 94 | Viewed by 9252

With the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), a large number of physical objects in daily life have been aggressively connected to the Internet. As the number of objects connected to networks increases, the security systems face a critical challenge due to [...] Read more.

With the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), a large number of physical objects in daily life have been aggressively connected to the Internet. As the number of objects connected to networks increases, the security systems face a critical challenge due to the global connectivity and accessibility of the IoT. However, it is difficult to adapt traditional security systems to the objects in the IoT, because of their limited computing power and memory size. In light of this, we present a lightweight security system that uses a novel malicious pattern-matching engine. We limit the memory usage of the proposed system in order to make it work on resource-constrained devices. To mitigate performance degradation due to limitations of computation power and memory, we propose two novel techniques, auxiliary shifting and early decision. Through both techniques, we can efficiently reduce the number of matching operations on resource-constrained systems. Experiments and performance analyses show that our proposed system achieves a maximum speedup of 2.14 with an IoT object and provides scalable performance for a large number of patterns. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Collusion-Aware Privacy-Preserving Range Query in Tiered Wireless Sensor Networks

by Xiaoying Zhang, Lei Dong, Hui Peng, Hong Chen, Suyun Zhao and Cuiping Li

Sensors 2014, 14(12), 23905-23932; https://doi.org/10.3390/s141223905 - 11 Dec 2014

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 6036

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are indispensable building blocks for the Internet of Things (IoT). With the development of WSNs, privacy issues have drawn more attention. Existing work on the privacy-preserving range query mainly focuses on privacy preservation and integrity verification in two-tiered WSNs [...] Read more.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are indispensable building blocks for the Internet of Things (IoT). With the development of WSNs, privacy issues have drawn more attention. Existing work on the privacy-preserving range query mainly focuses on privacy preservation and integrity verification in two-tiered WSNs in the case of compromisedmaster nodes, but neglects the damage of node collusion. In this paper, we propose a series of collusion-aware privacy-preserving range query protocols in two-tiered WSNs. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to consider collusion attacks for a range query in tiered WSNs while fulfilling the preservation of privacy and integrity. To preserve the privacy of data and queries, we propose a novel encoding scheme to conceal sensitive information. To preserve the integrity of the results, we present a verification scheme using the correlation among data. In addition, two schemes are further presented to improve result accuracy and reduce communication cost. Finally, theoretical analysis and experimental results confirm the efficiency, accuracy and privacy of our proposals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

A Local Energy Consumption Prediction-Based Clustering Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

by Jiguo Yu, Li Feng, Lili Jia, Xin Gu and Dongxiao Yu

Sensors 2014, 14(12), 23017-23040; https://doi.org/10.3390/s141223017 - 03 Dec 2014

Cited by 43 | Viewed by 6421

Clustering is a fundamental and effective technique for utilizing sensor nodes’ energy and extending the network lifetime for wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we propose a novel clustering protocol, LECP-CP (local energy consumption prediction-based clustering protocol), the core of which includes a [...] Read more.

Clustering is a fundamental and effective technique for utilizing sensor nodes’ energy and extending the network lifetime for wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we propose a novel clustering protocol, LECP-CP (local energy consumption prediction-based clustering protocol), the core of which includes a novel cluster head election algorithm and an inter-cluster communication routing tree construction algorithm, both based on the predicted local energy consumption ratio of nodes. We also provide a more accurate and realistic cluster radius to minimize the energy consumption of the entire network. The global energy consumption can be optimized by the optimization of the local energy consumption, and the energy consumption among nodes can be balanced well. Simulation results validate our theoretical analysis and show that LECP-CP has high efficiency of energy utilization, good scalability and significant improvement in the network lifetime. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

On the MAC/Network/Energy Performance Evaluation of Wireless Sensor Networks: Contrasting MPH, AODV, DSR and ZTR Routing Protocols

by Carolina Del-Valle-Soto, Carlos Mex-Perera, Aldo Orozco-Lugo, Mauricio Lara, Giselle M. Galván-Tejada and Oscar Olmedo

Sensors 2014, 14(12), 22811-22847; https://doi.org/10.3390/s141222811 - 02 Dec 2014

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 6738

Wireless Sensor Networks deliver valuable information for long periods, then it is desirable to have optimum performance, reduced delays, low overhead, and reliable delivery of information. In this work, proposed metrics that influence energy consumption are used for a performance comparison among our [...] Read more.

Wireless Sensor Networks deliver valuable information for long periods, then it is desirable to have optimum performance, reduced delays, low overhead, and reliable delivery of information. In this work, proposed metrics that influence energy consumption are used for a performance comparison among our proposed routing protocol, called Multi-Parent Hierarchical (MPH), the well-known protocols for sensor networks, Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV), Dynamic Source Routing (DSR), and Zigbee Tree Routing (ZTR), all of them working with the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC layer. Results show how some communication metrics affect performance, throughput, reliability and energy consumption. It can be concluded that MPH is an efficient protocol since it reaches the best performance against the other three protocols under evaluation, such as 19.3% reduction of packet retransmissions, 26.9% decrease of overhead, and 41.2% improvement on the capacity of the protocol for recovering the topology from failures with respect to AODV protocol. We implemented and tested MPH in a real network of 99 nodes during ten days and analyzed parameters as number of hops, connectivity and delay, in order to validate our Sensors 2014, 14 22812 simulator and obtain reliable results. Moreover, an energy model of CC2530 chip is proposed and used for simulations of the four aforementioned protocols, showing that MPH has 15.9% reduction of energy consumption with respect to AODV, 13.7% versus DSR, and 5% against ZTR. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Accurate Monitoring and Fault Detection in Wind Measuring Devices through Wireless Sensor Networks

by Komal Saifullah Khan and Muhammad Tariq

Sensors 2014, 14(11), 22140-22158; https://doi.org/10.3390/s141122140 - 24 Nov 2014

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 6408

Many wind energy projects report poor performance as low as 60% of the predicted performance. The reason for this is poor resource assessment and the use of new untested technologies and systems in remote locations. Predictions about the potential of an area for [...] Read more.

Many wind energy projects report poor performance as low as 60% of the predicted performance. The reason for this is poor resource assessment and the use of new untested technologies and systems in remote locations. Predictions about the potential of an area for wind energy projects (through simulated models) may vary from the actual potential of the area. Hence, introducing accurate site assessment techniques will lead to accurate predictions of energy production from a particular area. We solve this problem by installing a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) to periodically analyze the data from anemometers installed in that area. After comparative analysis of the acquired data, the anemometers transmit their readings through a WSN to the sink node for analysis. The sink node uses an iterative algorithm which sequentially detects any faulty anemometer and passes the details of the fault to the central system or main station. We apply the proposed technique in simulation as well as in practical implementation and study its accuracy by comparing the simulation results with experimental results to analyze the variation in the results obtained from both simulation model and implemented model. Simulation results show that the algorithm indicates faulty anemometers with high accuracy and low false alarm rate when as many as 25% of the anemometers become faulty. Experimental analysis shows that anemometers incorporating this solution are better assessed and performance level of implemented projects is increased above 86% of the simulated models. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

IoT-Based User-Driven Service Modeling Environment for a Smart Space Management System

by Hoan-Suk Choi and Woo-Seop Rhee

Sensors 2014, 14(11), 22039-22064; https://doi.org/10.3390/s141122039 - 20 Nov 2014

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 9329

The existing Internet environment has been extended to the Internet of Things (IoT) as an emerging new paradigm. The IoT connects various physical entities. These entities have communication capability and deploy the observed information to various service areas such as building management, energy-saving [...] Read more.

The existing Internet environment has been extended to the Internet of Things (IoT) as an emerging new paradigm. The IoT connects various physical entities. These entities have communication capability and deploy the observed information to various service areas such as building management, energy-saving systems, surveillance services, and smart homes. These services are designed and developed by professional service providers. Moreover, users’ needs have become more complicated and personalized with the spread of user-participation services such as social media and blogging. Therefore, some active users want to create their own services to satisfy their needs, but the existing IoT service-creation environment is difficult for the non-technical user because it requires a programming capability to create a service. To solve this problem, we propose the IoT-based user-driven service modeling environment to provide an easy way to create IoT services. Also, the proposed environment deploys the defined service to another user. Through the personalization and customization of the defined service, the value and dissemination of the service is increased. This environment also provides the ontology-based context-information processing that produces and describes the context information for the IoT-based user-driven service. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Using Hybrid Angle/Distance Information for Distributed Topology Control in Vehicular Sensor Networks

by Chao-Chi Huang, Yang-Hung Chiu and Chih-Yu Wen

Sensors 2014, 14(11), 20188-20216; https://doi.org/10.3390/s141120188 - 27 Oct 2014

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5573

In a vehicular sensor network (VSN), the key design issue is how to organize vehicles effectively, such that the local network topology can be stabilized quickly. In this work, each vehicle with on-board sensors can be considered as a local controller associated with [...] Read more.

In a vehicular sensor network (VSN), the key design issue is how to organize vehicles effectively, such that the local network topology can be stabilized quickly. In this work, each vehicle with on-board sensors can be considered as a local controller associated with a group of communication members. In order to balance the load among the nodes and govern the local topology change, a group formation scheme using localized criteria is implemented. The proposed distributed topology control method focuses on reducing the rate of group member change and avoiding the unnecessary information exchange. Two major phases are sequentially applied to choose the group members of each vehicle using hybrid angle/distance information. The operation of Phase I is based on the concept of the cone-based method, which can select the desired vehicles quickly. Afterwards, the proposed time-slot method is further applied to stabilize the network topology. Given the network structure in Phase I, a routing scheme is presented in Phase II. The network behaviors are explored through simulation and analysis in a variety of scenarios. The results show that the proposed mechanism is a scalable and effective control framework for VSNs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Distributed Service-Based Approach for Sensor Data Fusion in IoT Environments

by Sandra Rodríguez-Valenzuela, Juan A. Holgado-Terriza, José M. Gutiérrez-Guerrero and Jesús L. Muros-Cobos

Sensors 2014, 14(10), 19200-19228; https://doi.org/10.3390/s141019200 - 15 Oct 2014

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 7701

The Internet of Things (IoT) enables the communication among smart objects promoting the pervasive presence around us of a variety of things or objects that are able to interact and cooperate jointly to reach common goals. IoT objects can obtain data from their [...] Read more.

The Internet of Things (IoT) enables the communication among smart objects promoting the pervasive presence around us of a variety of things or objects that are able to interact and cooperate jointly to reach common goals. IoT objects can obtain data from their context, such as the home, office, industry or body. These data can be combined to obtain new and more complex information applying data fusion processes. However, to apply data fusion algorithms in IoT environments, the full system must deal with distributed nodes, decentralized communication and support scalability and nodes dynamicity, among others restrictions. In this paper, a novel method to manage data acquisition and fusion based on a distributed service composition model is presented, improving the data treatment in IoT pervasive environments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Use of NTRIP for Optimizing the Decoding Algorithm for Real-Time Data Streams

by Zhanke He, Wenda Tang, Xuhai Yang, Liming Wang and Jihua Liu

Sensors 2014, 14(10), 18878-18885; https://doi.org/10.3390/s141018878 - 10 Oct 2014

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 6574

As a network transmission protocol, Networked Transport of RTCM via Internet Protocol (NTRIP) is widely used in GPS and Global Orbiting Navigational Satellite System (GLONASS) Augmentation systems, such as Continuous Operational Reference System (CORS), Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and Satellite Based Augmentation [...] Read more.

As a network transmission protocol, Networked Transport of RTCM via Internet Protocol (NTRIP) is widely used in GPS and Global Orbiting Navigational Satellite System (GLONASS) Augmentation systems, such as Continuous Operational Reference System (CORS), Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and Satellite Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS). With the deployment of BeiDou Navigation Satellite system(BDS) to serve the Asia-Pacific region, there are increasing needs for ground monitoring of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite system and the development of the high-precision real-time BeiDou products. This paper aims to optimize the decoding algorithm of NTRIP Client data streams and the user authentication strategies of the NTRIP Caster based on NTRIP. The proposed method greatly enhances the handling efficiency and significantly reduces the data transmission delay compared with the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) NTRIP. Meanwhile, a transcoding method is proposed to facilitate the data transformation from the BINary EXchange (BINEX) format to the RTCM format. The transformation scheme thus solves the problem of handing real-time data streams from Trimble receivers in the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System indigenously developed by China. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Design of an Elliptic Curve Cryptography Processor for RFID Tag Chips

by Zilong Liu, Dongsheng Liu, Xuecheng Zou, Hui Lin and Jian Cheng

Sensors 2014, 14(10), 17883-17904; https://doi.org/10.3390/s141017883 - 26 Sep 2014

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 7686

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an important technique for wireless sensor networks and the Internet of Things. Recently, considerable research has been performed in the combination of public key cryptography and RFID. In this paper, an efficient architecture of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) [...] Read more.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an important technique for wireless sensor networks and the Internet of Things. Recently, considerable research has been performed in the combination of public key cryptography and RFID. In this paper, an efficient architecture of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) Processor for RFID tag chip is presented. We adopt a new inversion algorithm which requires fewer registers to store variables than the traditional schemes. A new method for coordinate swapping is proposed, which can reduce the complexity of the controller and shorten the time of iterative calculation effectively. A modified circular shift register architecture is presented in this paper, which is an effective way to reduce the area of register files. Clock gating and asynchronous counter are exploited to reduce the power consumption. The simulation and synthesis results show that the time needed for one elliptic curve scalar point multiplication over GF(2¹⁶³) is 176.7 K clock cycles and the gate area is 13.8 K with UMC 0.13 μm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Moreover, the low power and low cost consumption make the Elliptic Curve Cryptography Processor (ECP) a prospective candidate for application in the RFID tag chip. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

MIROS: A Hybrid Real-Time Energy-Efficient Operating System for the Resource-Constrained Wireless Sensor Nodes

by Xing Liu, Kun Mean Hou, Christophe De Vaulx, Hongling Shi and Khalid El Gholami

Sensors 2014, 14(9), 17621-17654; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140917621 - 22 Sep 2014

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 7727

Operating system (OS) technology is significant for the proliferation of the wireless sensor network (WSN). With an outstanding OS; the constrained WSN resources (processor; memory and energy) can be utilized efficiently. Moreover; the user application development can be served soundly. In this article; [...] Read more.

Operating system (OS) technology is significant for the proliferation of the wireless sensor network (WSN). With an outstanding OS; the constrained WSN resources (processor; memory and energy) can be utilized efficiently. Moreover; the user application development can be served soundly. In this article; a new hybrid; real-time; memory-efficient; energy-efficient; user-friendly and fault-tolerant WSN OS MIROS is designed and implemented. MIROS implements the hybrid scheduler and the dynamic memory allocator. Real-time scheduling can thus be achieved with low memory consumption. In addition; it implements a mid-layer software EMIDE (Efficient Mid-layer Software for User-Friendly Application Development Environment) to decouple the WSN application from the low-level system. The application programming process can consequently be simplified and the application reprogramming performance improved. Moreover; it combines both the software and the multi-core hardware techniques to conserve the energy resources; improve the node reliability; as well as achieve a new debugging method. To evaluate the performance of MIROS; it is compared with the other WSN OSes (TinyOS; Contiki; SOS; openWSN and mantisOS) from different OS concerns. The final evaluation results prove that MIROS is suitable to be used even on the tight resource-constrained WSN nodes. It can support the real-time WSN applications. Furthermore; it is energy efficient; user friendly and fault tolerant. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

WSNs Data Acquisition by Combining Hierarchical Routing Method and Compressive Sensing

by Zhiqiang Zou, Cunchen Hu, Fei Zhang, Hao Zhao and Shu Shen

Sensors 2014, 14(9), 16766-16784; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140916766 - 09 Sep 2014

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 6076

We address the problem of data acquisition in large distributed wireless sensor networks (WSNs). We propose a method for data acquisition using the hierarchical routing method and compressive sensing for WSNs. Only a few samples are needed to recover the original signal with [...] Read more.

We address the problem of data acquisition in large distributed wireless sensor networks (WSNs). We propose a method for data acquisition using the hierarchical routing method and compressive sensing for WSNs. Only a few samples are needed to recover the original signal with high probability since sparse representation technology is exploited to capture the similarities and differences of the original signal. To collect samples effectively in WSNs, a framework for the use of the hierarchical routing method and compressive sensing is proposed, using a randomized rotation of cluster-heads to evenly distribute the energy load among the sensors in the network. Furthermore, L1-minimization and Bayesian compressed sensing are used to approximate the recovery of the original signal from the smaller number of samples with a lower signal reconstruction error. We also give an extensive validation regarding coherence, compression rate, and lifetime, based on an analysis of the theory and experiments in the environment with real world signals. The results show that our solution is effective in a large distributed network, especially for energy constrained WSNs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Energy-Efficient Privacy Protection for Smart Home Environments Using Behavioral Semantics

by Homin Park, Can Basaran, Taejoon Park and Sang Hyuk Son

Sensors 2014, 14(9), 16235-16257; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140916235 - 02 Sep 2014

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 6742

Research on smart environments saturated with ubiquitous computing devices is rapidly advancing while raising serious privacy issues. According to recent studies, privacy concerns significantly hinder widespread adoption of smart home technologies. Previous work has shown that it is possible to infer the activities [...] Read more.

Research on smart environments saturated with ubiquitous computing devices is rapidly advancing while raising serious privacy issues. According to recent studies, privacy concerns significantly hinder widespread adoption of smart home technologies. Previous work has shown that it is possible to infer the activities of daily living within environments equipped with wireless sensors by monitoring radio fingerprints and traffic patterns. Since data encryption cannot prevent privacy invasions exploiting transmission pattern analysis and statistical inference, various methods based on fake data generation for concealing traffic patterns have been studied. In this paper, we describe an energy-efficient, light-weight, low-latency algorithm for creating dummy activities that are semantically similar to the observed phenomena. By using these cloaking activities, the amount of fake data transmissions can be flexibly controlled to support a trade-off between energy efficiency and privacy protection. According to the experiments using real data collected from a smart home environment, our proposed method can extend the lifetime of the network by more than 2× compared to the previous methods in the literature. Furthermore, the activity cloaking method supports low latency transmission of real data while also significantly reducing the accuracy of the wireless snooping attacks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Graphical abstract

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Open AccessArticle

Reliability of Wireless Sensor Networks

by Antônio Dâmaso, Nelson Rosa and Paulo Maciel

Sensors 2014, 14(9), 15760-15785; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140915760 - 25 Aug 2014

Cited by 84 | Viewed by 8780

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consist of hundreds or thousands of sensor nodes with limited processing, storage, and battery capabilities. There are several strategies to reduce the power consumption of WSN nodes (by increasing the network lifetime) and increase the reliability of the network [...] Read more.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consist of hundreds or thousands of sensor nodes with limited processing, storage, and battery capabilities. There are several strategies to reduce the power consumption of WSN nodes (by increasing the network lifetime) and increase the reliability of the network (by improving the WSN Quality of Service). However, there is an inherent conflict between power consumption and reliability: an increase in reliability usually leads to an increase in power consumption. For example, routing algorithms can send the same packet though different paths (multipath strategy), which it is important for reliability, but they significantly increase the WSN power consumption. In this context, this paper proposes a model for evaluating the reliability of WSNs considering the battery level as a key factor. Moreover, this model is based on routing algorithms used by WSNs. In order to evaluate the proposed models, three scenarios were considered to show the impact of the power consumption on the reliability of WSNs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Analytical Model of Large Data Transactions in CoAP Networks

by Alessandro Ludovici, Piergiuseppe Di Marco, Anna Calveras and Karl H. Johansson

Sensors 2014, 14(8), 15610-15638; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140815610 - 22 Aug 2014

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 7275

We propose a novel analytical model to study fragmentation methods in wireless sensor networks adopting the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) and the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for medium access control (MAC). The blockwise transfer technique proposed in CoAP and the 6LoWPAN fragmentation are included [...] Read more.

We propose a novel analytical model to study fragmentation methods in wireless sensor networks adopting the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) and the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for medium access control (MAC). The blockwise transfer technique proposed in CoAP and the 6LoWPAN fragmentation are included in the analysis. The two techniques are compared in terms of reliability and delay, depending on the traffic, the number of nodes and the parameters of the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC. The results are validated trough Monte Carlo simulations. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study that evaluates and compares analytically the performance of CoAP blockwise transfer and 6LoWPAN fragmentation. A major contribution is the possibility to understand the behavior of both techniques with different network conditions. Our results show that 6LoWPAN fragmentation is preferable for delay-constrained applications. For highly congested networks, the blockwise transfer slightly outperforms 6LoWPAN fragmentation in terms of reliability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Focal-Plane Sensing-Processing: A Power-Efficient Approach for the Implementation of Privacy-Aware Networked Visual Sensors

by Jorge Fernández-Berni, Ricardo Carmona-Galán, Rocío Del Río, Richard Kleihorst, Wilfried Philips and Ángel Rodríguez-Vázquez

Sensors 2014, 14(8), 15203-15226; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140815203 - 19 Aug 2014

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 7394

The capture, processing and distribution of visual information is one of the major challenges for the paradigm of the Internet of Things. Privacy emerges as a fundamental barrier to overcome. The idea of networked image sensors pervasively collecting data generates social rejection in [...] Read more.

The capture, processing and distribution of visual information is one of the major challenges for the paradigm of the Internet of Things. Privacy emerges as a fundamental barrier to overcome. The idea of networked image sensors pervasively collecting data generates social rejection in the face of sensitive information being tampered by hackers or misused by legitimate users. Power consumption also constitutes a crucial aspect. Images contain a massive amount of data to be processed under strict timing requirements, demanding high-performance vision systems. In this paper, we describe a hardware-based strategy to concurrently address these two key issues. By conveying processing capabilities to the focal plane in addition to sensing, we can implement privacy protection measures just at the point where sensitive data are generated. Furthermore, such measures can be tailored for efficiently reducing the computational load of subsequent processing stages. As a proof of concept, a full-custom QVGA vision sensor chip is presented. It incorporates a mixed-signal focal-plane sensing-processing array providing programmable pixelation of multiple image regions in parallel. In addition to this functionality, the sensor exploits reconfigurability to implement other processing primitives, namely block-wise dynamic range adaptation, integral image computation and multi-resolution filtering. The proposed circuitry is also suitable to build a granular space, becoming the raw material for subsequent feature extraction and recognition of categorized objects. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Security Analysis and Improvements of Authentication and Access Control in the Internet of Things

by Bruce Ndibanje, Hoon-Jae Lee and Sang-Gon Lee

Sensors 2014, 14(8), 14786-14805; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140814786 - 13 Aug 2014

Cited by 81 | Viewed by 9785

Internet of Things is a ubiquitous concept where physical objects are connected over the internet and are provided with unique identifiers to enable their self-identification to other devices and the ability to continuously generate data and transmit it over a network. Hence, the [...] Read more.

Internet of Things is a ubiquitous concept where physical objects are connected over the internet and are provided with unique identifiers to enable their self-identification to other devices and the ability to continuously generate data and transmit it over a network. Hence, the security of the network, data and sensor devices is a paramount concern in the IoT network as it grows very fast in terms of exchanged data and interconnected sensor nodes. This paper analyses the authentication and access control method using in the Internet of Things presented by Jing et al. According to our analysis, Jing et al.’s protocol is costly in the message exchange and the security assessment is not strong enough for such a protocol. Therefore, we propose improvements to the protocol to fill the discovered weakness gaps. The protocol enhancements facilitate many services to the users such as user anonymity, mutual authentication, and secure session key establishment. Finally, the performance and security analysis show that the improved protocol possesses many advantages against popular attacks, and achieves better efficiency at low communication cost. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

LiftingWiSe: A Lifting-Based Efficient Data Processing Technique in Wireless Sensor Networks

by Emad Aboelela

Sensors 2014, 14(8), 14567-14585; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140814567 - 11 Aug 2014

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 6330

Monitoring thousands of objects which are deployed over large-hard-to-reach areas, is an important application of the wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Such an application requires disseminating a large amount of data within the WSN. This data includes, but is not limited to, the object’s [...] Read more.

Monitoring thousands of objects which are deployed over large-hard-to-reach areas, is an important application of the wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Such an application requires disseminating a large amount of data within the WSN. This data includes, but is not limited to, the object’s location and the environment conditions at that location. WSNs require efficient data processing and dissemination processes due to the limited storage, processing power, and energy available in the WSN nodes. The aim of this paper is to propose a data processing technique that can work under constrained storage, processing, and energy resource conditions. The proposed technique utilizes the lifting procedure in processing the disseminated data. Lifting is usually used in discrete wavelet transform (DWT) operations. The proposed technique is referred to as LiftingWiSe, which stands for Lifting-based efficient data processing technique for Wireless Sensor Networks. LiftingWiSe has been tested and compared to other relevant techniques from the literature. The test has been conducted via a simulation of the monitored field and the deployed wireless sensor network nodes. The simulation results have been analyzed and discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Resource Optimization Scheme for Multimedia-Enabled Wireless Mesh Networks

by Amjad Ali, Muhammad Ejaz Ahmed, Md. Jalil Piran and Doug Young Suh

Sensors 2014, 14(8), 14500-14525; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140814500 - 08 Aug 2014

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 6762

Wireless mesh networking is a promising technology that can support numerous multimedia applications. Multimedia applications have stringent quality of service (QoS) requirements, i.e., bandwidth, delay, jitter, and packet loss ratio. Enabling such QoS-demanding applications over wireless mesh networks (WMNs) require [...] Read more.

Wireless mesh networking is a promising technology that can support numerous multimedia applications. Multimedia applications have stringent quality of service (QoS) requirements, i.e., bandwidth, delay, jitter, and packet loss ratio. Enabling such QoS-demanding applications over wireless mesh networks (WMNs) require QoS provisioning routing protocols that lead to the network resource underutilization problem. Moreover, random topology deployment leads to have some unused network resources. Therefore, resource optimization is one of the most critical design issues in multi-hop, multi-radio WMNs enabled with multimedia applications. Resource optimization has been studied extensively in the literature for wireless Ad Hoc and sensor networks, but existing studies have not considered resource underutilization issues caused by QoS provisioning routing and random topology deployment. Finding a QoS-provisioned path in wireless mesh networks is an NP complete problem. In this paper, we propose a novel Integer Linear Programming (ILP) optimization model to reconstruct the optimal connected mesh backbone topology with a minimum number of links and relay nodes which satisfies the given end-to-end QoS demands for multimedia traffic and identification of extra resources, while maintaining redundancy. We further propose a polynomial time heuristic algorithm called Link and Node Removal Considering Residual Capacity and Traffic Demands (LNR-RCTD). Simulation studies prove that our heuristic algorithm provides near-optimal results and saves about 20% of resources from being wasted by QoS provisioning routing and random topology deployment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

A Practical Application Combining Wireless Sensor Networks and Internet of Things: Safety Management System for Tower Crane Groups

by Dexing Zhong, Hongqiang Lv, Jiuqiang Han and Quanrui Wei

Sensors 2014, 14(8), 13794-13814; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140813794 - 30 Jul 2014

Cited by 50 | Viewed by 11834

The so-called Internet of Things (IoT) has attracted increasing attention in the field of computer and information science. In this paper, a specific application of IoT, named Safety Management System for Tower Crane Groups (SMS-TC), is proposed for use in the construction industry [...] Read more.

The so-called Internet of Things (IoT) has attracted increasing attention in the field of computer and information science. In this paper, a specific application of IoT, named Safety Management System for Tower Crane Groups (SMS-TC), is proposed for use in the construction industry field. The operating status of each tower crane was detected by a set of customized sensors, including horizontal and vertical position sensors for the trolley, angle sensors for the jib and load, tilt and wind speed sensors for the tower body. The sensor data is collected and processed by the Tower Crane Safety Terminal Equipment (TC-STE) installed in the driver’s operating room. Wireless communication between each TC-STE and the Local Monitoring Terminal (LMT) at the ground worksite were fulfilled through a Zigbee wireless network. LMT can share the status information of the whole group with each TC-STE, while the LMT records the real-time data and reports it to the Remote Supervision Platform (RSP) through General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Based on the global status data of the whole group, an anti-collision algorithm was executed in each TC-STE to ensure the safety of each tower crane during construction. Remote supervision can be fulfilled using our client software installed on a personal computer (PC) or smartphone. SMS-TC could be considered as a promising practical application that combines a Wireless Sensor Network with the Internet of Things. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Experimental Energy Consumption of Frame Slotted ALOHA and Distributed Queuing for Data Collection Scenarios

by Pere Tuset-Peiro, Francisco Vazquez-Gallego, Jesus Alonso-Zarate, Luis Alonso and Xavier Vilajosana

Sensors 2014, 14(8), 13416-13436; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140813416 - 24 Jul 2014

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5775

Data collection is a key scenario for the Internet of Things because it enables gathering sensor data from distributed nodes that use low-power and long-range wireless technologies to communicate in a single-hop approach. In this kind of scenario, the network is composed of [...] Read more.

Data collection is a key scenario for the Internet of Things because it enables gathering sensor data from distributed nodes that use low-power and long-range wireless technologies to communicate in a single-hop approach. In this kind of scenario, the network is composed of one coordinator that covers a particular area and a large number of nodes, typically hundreds or thousands, that transmit data to the coordinator upon request. Considering this scenario, in this paper we experimentally validate the energy consumption of two Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols, Frame Slotted ALOHA (FSA) and Distributed Queuing (DQ). We model both protocols as a state machine and conduct experiments to measure the average energy consumption in each state and the average number of times that a node has to be in each state in order to transmit a data packet to the coordinator. The results show that FSA is more energy efficient than DQ if the number of nodes is known a priori because the number of slots per frame can be adjusted accordingly. However, in such scenarios the number of nodes cannot be easily anticipated, leading to additional packet collisions and a higher energy consumption due to retransmissions. Contrarily, DQ does not require to know the number of nodes in advance because it is able to efficiently construct an ad hoc network schedule for each collection round. This kind of a schedule ensures that there are no packet collisions during data transmission, thus leading to an energy consumption reduction above 10% compared to FSA. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

On the Network Convergence Process in RPL over IEEE 802.15.4 Multihop Networks: Improvement and Trade-Offs

by Hamidreza Kermajani and Carles Gomez

Sensors 2014, 14(7), 11993-12022; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140711993 - 07 Jul 2014

Cited by 34 | Viewed by 7527

The IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-power and Lossy Networks (RPL) has been recently developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Given its crucial role in enabling the Internet of Things, a significant amount of research effort has already been devoted to RPL. [...] Read more.

The IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-power and Lossy Networks (RPL) has been recently developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Given its crucial role in enabling the Internet of Things, a significant amount of research effort has already been devoted to RPL. However, the RPL network convergence process has not yet been investigated in detail. In this paper we study the influence of the main RPL parameters and mechanisms on the network convergence process of this protocol in IEEE 802.15.4 multihop networks. We also propose and evaluate a mechanism that leverages an option available in RPL for accelerating the network convergence process. We carry out extensive simulations for a wide range of conditions, considering different network scenarios in terms of size and density. Results show that network convergence performance depends dramatically on the use and adequate configuration of key RPL parameters and mechanisms. The findings and contributions of this work provide a RPL configuration guideline for network convergence performance tuning, as well as a characterization of the related performance trade-offs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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A Model-Based Approach for Bridging Virtual and Physical Sensor Nodes in a Hybrid Simulation Framework

by Mohammad Mozumdar, Zhen Yu Song, Luciano Lavagno and Alberto L. Sangiovanni-Vincentelli

Sensors 2014, 14(6), 11070-11096; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140611070 - 23 Jun 2014

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 6821

The Model Based Design (MBD) approach is a popular trend to speed up application development of embedded systems, which uses high-level abstractions to capture functional requirements in an executable manner, and which automates implementation code generation. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are an emerging [...] Read more.

The Model Based Design (MBD) approach is a popular trend to speed up application development of embedded systems, which uses high-level abstractions to capture functional requirements in an executable manner, and which automates implementation code generation. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are an emerging very promising application area for embedded systems. However, there is a lack of tools in this area, which would allow an application developer to model a WSN application by using high level abstractions, simulate it mapped to a multi-node scenario for functional analysis, and finally use the refined model to automatically generate code for different WSN platforms. Motivated by this idea, in this paper we present a hybrid simulation framework that not only follows the MBD approach for WSN application development, but also interconnects a simulated sub-network with a physical sub-network and then allows one to co-simulate them, which is also known as Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Open AccessArticle

Flexible Unicast-Based Group Communication for CoAP-Enabled Devices

by Isam Ishaq, Jeroen Hoebeke, Floris Van den Abeele, Jen Rossey, Ingrid Moerman and Piet Demeester

Sensors 2014, 14(6), 9833-9877; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140609833 - 04 Jun 2014

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 13487

Smart embedded objects will become an important part of what is called the Internet of Things. Applications often require concurrent interactions with several of these objects and their resources. Existing solutions have several limitations in terms of reliability, flexibility and manageability of such [...] Read more.

Smart embedded objects will become an important part of what is called the Internet of Things. Applications often require concurrent interactions with several of these objects and their resources. Existing solutions have several limitations in terms of reliability, flexibility and manageability of such groups of objects. To overcome these limitations we propose an intermediately level of intelligence to easily manipulate a group of resources across multiple smart objects, building upon the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP). We describe the design of our solution to create and manipulate a group of CoAP resources using a single client request. Furthermore we introduce the concept of profiles for the created groups. The use of profiles allows the client to specify in more detail how the group should behave. We have implemented our solution and demonstrate that it covers the complete group life-cycle, i.e., creation, validation, flexible usage and deletion. Finally, we quantitatively analyze the performance of our solution and compare it against multicast-based CoAP group communication. The results show that our solution improves reliability and flexibility with a trade-off in increased communication overhead. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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Review

Jump to: Research

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Applications of Wireless Sensor Networks in Marine Environment Monitoring: A Survey

by Guobao Xu, Weiming Shen and Xianbin Wang

Sensors 2014, 14(9), 16932-16954; https://doi.org/10.3390/s140916932 - 11 Sep 2014

Cited by 299 | Viewed by 24327

With the rapid development of society and the economy, an increasing number of human activities have gradually destroyed the marine environment. Marine environment monitoring is a vital problem and has increasingly attracted a great deal of research and development attention. During the past [...] Read more.

With the rapid development of society and the economy, an increasing number of human activities have gradually destroyed the marine environment. Marine environment monitoring is a vital problem and has increasingly attracted a great deal of research and development attention. During the past decade, various marine environment monitoring systems have been developed. The traditional marine environment monitoring system using an oceanographic research vessel is expensive and time-consuming and has a low resolution both in time and space. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have recently been considered as potentially promising alternatives for monitoring marine environments since they have a number of advantages such as unmanned operation, easy deployment, real-time monitoring, and relatively low cost. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art technologies in the field of marine environment monitoring using wireless sensor networks. It first describes application areas, a common architecture of WSN-based oceanographic monitoring systems, a general architecture of an oceanographic sensor node, sensing parameters and sensors, and wireless communication technologies. Then, it presents a detailed review of some related projects, systems, techniques, approaches and algorithms. It also discusses challenges and opportunities in the research, development, and deployment of wireless sensor networks for marine environment monitoring. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Sensor Networks and the Internet of Things)

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