Search Results (37)

With the rapid development of wireless communication and embedded technology, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become an important part of the Internet of Things (IoT). Despite these advances, many current WSNs are still limited to a single topology and point-to-point communication, which greatly hinders communication efficiency and scalability and poses additional challenges for our communication networks. In this study, we propose a multi-node hybrid-topology sensor network that uses the CC2530 chip and ZigBee technology to overcome these problems. Single-structure wireless sensor networks have problems such as poor scalability, and damage to a terminal can cause the entire network to collapse. To solve these problems, we propose a new hybrid-topology model with the advantages of scalability and system stability. It also has a self-regulating mechanism, so that if a router is damaged, the terminal can be converted to a router to prevent the network from collapsing. We propose a new hybrid topology model using ZigBee wireless communication technology and the CC2530 chip. The aim of this research is to improve communication efficiency, reduce costs, and achieve high accuracy while meeting energy-saving requirements and measurement needs in a variety of environments. Finally, we studied the model’s scalability to further illustrate its superiority in the development of wireless sensor networks. The experimental results show that this method not only improves communication efficiency but also achieves flexibility. Full article

This paper presents a unified performance metric for evaluating the chronological wild geese optimization (CWGO) algorithm in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The metric combines key performance factors—energy consumption, delay, distance, and trust—into a single measure using Lagrange interpolation, providing a more comprehensive assessment of WSN algorithms. We evaluate CWGO against E-CERP, EECHIGWO, DUCISCA, and DE-SEP across static and dynamic sensor node configurations in various wireless technologies, including LoRa, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Bluetooth low energy (BLE). The results show that CWGO consistently outperforms the other algorithms, especially in larger node configurations, demonstrating its scalability and robustness in static and dynamic environments. Moreover, the unified metric reveals significant performance gaps with EECHIGWO, which underperforms all wireless technologies. DUCISCA and DE-SEP show moderate and fluctuating results, underscoring their limitations in larger networks. While E-CERP performs competitively, it generally lags behind CWGO. The unified metric offers a holistic view of algorithm performance, conveying clearer comparisons across multiple factors. This study emphasized the importance of a unified evaluation approach for WSN algorithms and positions CWGO as a superior solution for efficient cluster head selection and routing optimization in diverse WSN scenarios. While CWGO demonstrates superior performance in simulation, future research should validate these findings in real-world deployments, accounting for hardware limitations and in a highly dynamic environment. Further optimization of the unified metrics’ computational efficiency could enhance its real-time applicability in larger, energy-resource-constrained WSNs. Full article

Nowadays, the Industry 4.0 concept and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) are considered essential for the implementation of automated manufacturing processes across various industrial settings. In this regard, wireless sensor networks (WSN) are crucial due to their inherent mobility, easy deployment and maintenance, scalability, and low power consumption, among other benefits. In this context, the presented paper proposes an optimized and low-cost WSN based on ZigBee communication technology for the monitoring of a real manufacturing facility. The company designs and manufactures solar protection curtains and aims to integrate the deployed WSN into the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in order to optimize their production processes and enhance production efficiency and cost estimation capabilities. To achieve this, radio propagation measurements and 3D ray launching simulations were conducted to characterize the wireless channel behavior and facilitate the development of an optimized WSN system that can operate in the complex industrial environment presented and validated through on-site wireless channel measurements, as well as interference analysis. Then, a low-cost WSN was implemented and deployed to acquire real-time data from different machinery and workstations, which will be integrated into the ERP system. Multiple data streams have been collected and processed from the shop floor of the factory by means of the prototype wireless nodes implemented. This integration will enable the company to optimize its production processes, fabricate products more efficiently, and enhance its cost estimation capabilities. Moreover, the proposed system provides a scalable platform, enabling the integration of new sensors as well as information processing capabilities. Full article

Internet of things (IoT)-based wireless communication technology has been applied for efficient work and safety in mines. However, underground mines are surrounded by walls and have numerous curves, which reduce communication stability. For smooth communication between devices, a line of sight (LOS) must be connected without obstacles. If optimal installation locations in a virtual space can be confirmed before installing the device in the field, trial and error can be avoided. In this study, a 3D model-based LOS analysis technology was developed using Python and a ray-casting algorithm. A place with numerous LOS connections has good communication with other places; consequently, it is a suitable location to install the device. To indicate the degree of communication smoothness, a smooth communication index was proposed. A preliminary experiment was conducted in an indoor space within the Samcheok Campus of the Kangwon National University, and a field experiment was conducted at the Samdo Mine in Dogye-eup, Samcheok-si, Gangwon-do. Based on these results, an effective wireless sensor network (WSN) was established by installing a ZigBee-based monitoring device. The results of this study can be further improved and used for constructing smooth WSNs in underground mines in the future. Full article

In recent years, wireless sensor networks have been used in a wide range of indoor localization-based applications. Although promising, the existing works are dependent on a large number of anchor nodes to achieve localization, which brings the issues of increasing cost and additional maintenance. Inspired by the cross-technology communication, an emerging technique that enables direct communication among heterogeneous wireless devices, we propose an anchor-free distributed method, which leverages the installed Wi-Fi APs to range instead of traditional anchor nodes. More specifically, for the asymmetric coverage of Wi-Fi and ZigBee nodes, we first design a progressive method, where the first unknown node estimates its location based on two Wi-Fi APs and a sink node, then once achieving its position, it acts as the alternative sink node of the next hop node. This process is repeated until the new members can obtain their positions. Second, as a low-power technology, ZigBee signal may be submerged in strong signal such as Wi-Fi. To overcome this problem, a maximum prime number is deployed to be the Wi-Fi broadcasting period based on the numerical analysis theory. Among many of prime numbers, we have the opportunity to select an appropriate one to achieve full coverage with the relatively small packet collisions. Last, simulations and experiments are performed to evaluate the proposal. The evaluation results show that the proposal can achieve decimeter level accuracy without deploying any anchor node. Moreover, the proposal demonstrates the anti-interference ability in the crowded open spectrum environment. Full article

Short-range wireless technologies can transmit real-time voice, audio, picture, and video communications. Such networks’ energy usage and transmission reach are crucial, especially for portable and power autonomous devices. Voice over Zigbee technology’s goal is to create a competitive service that excels in these performance factors. IEEE standard 802.15.4 specifies two layers for low-rate WPANs: the physical layer and the media access control layer, with a data rate limit of 250 kbps. This partnership used low-level PHY and MAC layers as the foundation for developing the Zigbee network protocol, security, and applications. To overcome the problem of lowering costs and power usage to make this technology more accessible to the general public. This system displays the network’s operational data, such as wireless voice communication. This effort was made to minimize the overall cost of manufacturing such gadgets that contribute to home automation systems and related projects. The primary goal of the research was to communicate voice through low-power microcontrollers such as 8-bit microcontrollers using Zigbee. In this study, we developed a wireless sensor network (WSN) communication system based on Zigbee to securely transfer speech data over a medium-range distance (medium) and lower the equipment cost and communication expenses by 30% without compromising the data integrity. A testbed has been established to validate the fundamental functionality of the proposed ZigBee-based home network system. The suggested system’s network coverage capabilities were evaluated, as well as its packet loss and energy savings in long-term wireless network monitoring duties. Full article

The prevalent demand for remote data sharing and connectivity has catalysed the development of many wireless network technologies. However, low-power and low-rate wireless network technologies have emerged as the preferred choice (due to cheap procurement and maintenance cost, efficiency, and adaptability). Currently, these groups of wireless networks are adopted in homes, health, and business sectors. The increase in existing WSNs has resulted in the incompatibility of wireless network protocols and poses a problem that results in high acquisition or maintenance costs, increased complexity, reliability inadequacies in some instances, lack of uniformity within similar standards, and high energy consumption. To address this problem, we develop a novel machine-to-machine software-based brokerage application (known as JosNet) for interoperability and integration between Bluetooth LE, Zigbee, and Thread wireless network technologies. JosNet allows one network protocol to exchange data packets or commands with each other. In this paper, we present a novel working network brokerage model for a one-to-one network protocol to communication (e.g., from Zigbee to Bluetooth) or one-to-many network protocol communication (e.g., from Bluetooth to Zigbee, Thread, etc.) to securely send messages in a large-scale routing process for short or long-range connections. We also present a large-scale implementation of JosNet using a routing table for large areas. The results show an industry standard performance for end-to-end latency time and throughput. Full article

With the continuous development and progress of the mining industry, various technologies in mining engineering have gradually developed towards the intelligent stage, and the ventilation system is no exception. Since ancient times, mine ventilation has been a necessary part of mining engineering, and so the optimization of mine ventilation undoubtedly plays a great role in mining production. This two-part opinion paper briefly introduces the development of the intelligent ventilation in mining engineering and serves as a guide to the Tossing out a brick to get a jade gem, with implications for both the development and the future of the underground mine ventilation systems. Finally, in the second part of the paper, we explain why we think ZigBee WSN technology is the best choice in intelligent ventilation systems in underground mines at the present stage. Full article

With the continuous development of Artificial Intelligence technology and Internet of Things engineering, more and more driver-less vehicles have been developed and put into industrial production. The birth of driver-less vehicles undoubtedly brings new vitality to a large amount of industries, particularly in transportation. For the mining industry, transportation is undoubtedly an extremely important link in the whole production process. If the driver-less vehicles can be applied to the underground mines, it can not only improve the production and transportation capacity of the whole mine but also can reduce the occurrence of many mine safety accidents. ZigBee WSN technology can play a greater role in the narrow environment such as underground mines according to the relevant literature; this concept paper, similar to an engineering project plan, mainly tries to integrate the ZigBee WSN technology and the communication-based train control (CBTC) system to explore the possibility of the driver-less vehicles to be used in the underground mines, which aims to solve practical engineering problems for the engineering projects. As the mining engineers, we put forward the concept of this integrated system in this concept paper, but we need to continue to work hard for the future of the underground mines. This concept paper serves as a guide to Tossing out a brick to get a jade gem, and it has a few implications for the development of underground mine transportation. Full article

Seasonal crops require reliable storage conditions to protect the yield once harvested. For long term storage, controlling the moisture content level in grains is challenging because existing moisture measuring techniques are time-consuming and laborious as measurements are carried out manually. The measurements are carried out using a sample and moisture may be unevenly distributed inside the silo/bin. Numerous studies have been conducted to measure the moisture content in grains utilising dielectric properties. To the best of authors’ knowledge, the utilisation of low-cost wireless technology operating in the 2.4 GHz and 915 MHz ISM bands such as Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) have not been widely investigated. This study focuses on the characterisation of 2.4 GHz Radio Frequency (RF) transceivers using ZigBee Standard and 868 to 915 MHz UHF RFID transceiver for moisture content classification and prediction using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models. The Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) from the wireless transceivers is used for moisture content prediction in rice. Four samples (2 kg of rice each) were conditioned to 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25% moisture contents. The RSSI from both systems were obtained and processed. The processed data is used as input to different ANNs models such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN), Random Forest, and Multi-layer Perceptron (MLP). The results show that the Random Forest method with one input feature (RSSI_WSN) provides the highest accuracy of 87% compared to the other four models. All models show more than 98% accuracy when two input features (RSSI_WSN and RSSI_TAG2) are used. Hence, Random Forest is a reliable model that can be used to predict the moisture content level in rice as it gives a high accuracy even when only one input feature is used. Full article

Significant intensification in livestock farming has become prevalent to meet the increasing meat production demand, resulting in a higher density of pigs in relatively small areas in a commercial swine building. The subsequent challenges of maintaining the quality of both routine management and environmental comfort of pigs to minimize the loss of both pigs’ health and welfare can be attained by implementing autonomous monitoring and intelligent management decisions based on precision livestock farming (PLF). A three-layer wireless sensor network (WSN) based on ZigBee technology has been devised to monitor four environmental parameters in real-time, namely: temperature, relative humidity, concentrations of carbon dioxide and ammonia in a commercial gestating sow house. The overall packet loss rate of the WSN system which reported 16,371 records from its 41 indoor slave nodes in a 10-min interval for three consecutive days was 4%. The carbon dioxide sensors had an average outlier rate of 6.5% after a series of preprocessing procedures. The spatial and temporal characteristics showed that the carbon dioxide level exceeded the limit of 2700 mg/m³ twice during both 07:00–08:00 and 14:00–15:00. Besides, the overall NH₃ concentration in the swine building was maintained in a relatively low-level range with a maximum of less than 8 mg/m³. In sum, the real-time monitoring and timely intervention of microclimate in this commercial gestating sow house can be achieved by deploying this WSN system, thereby making it possible to provide an intelligent decision on precise management of livestock automatically. Full article

Buildings have been an important energy consuming sector, and inefficient controlling of lights can result in wastage of energy in buildings. The aim of the study is to reduce energy consumption by implementing a smart lighting system that integrates sensor technologies, a distributed wireless sensor network (WSN) using ZigBee protocol, and illumination control rules. A sensing module consists of occupancy sensors, including passive infrared (PIR) sensors and microwave Doppler sensors, an ambient light sensor, and lighting control rules. The dimming level of each luminaire is controlled by rules taking into consideration occupancy and daylight harvesting. The performance of the proposed system is evaluated in two scenarios, a metro station and an office room, and the average energy savings are about 45% and 36%, respectively. The effects of different factors on energy savings are analyzed, including people flow density, weather, desired illuminance, and the number of people in a room. Experimental results demonstrate the robustness of the proposed system and its ability to save energy consumption. The study can benefit the development of intelligent and sustainable buildings. Full article

The significant growth of wireless communications systems in the last years has led to the adoption of a wide range of applications not only for the general public but, also, including utilities and administrative authorities. In this context, the notable expansion of new services for smart cities requires, in some specific cases, the construction of underground tunnels in order to enable the maintenance and operation works of utilities, as well as to reduce the visual impact within the city center. One of the main challenges is that, inherently, underground service tunnels lack coverage from exterior wireless communication systems, which can be potentially dangerous for maintenance personnel working within the tunnels. Accordingly, wireless coverage should be deployed within the underground installation in order to guarantee real-time connectivity for safety maintenance, remote surveillance or monitoring operations. In this work, wireless channel characterization for complex urban tunnel environments was analyzed based on the assessment of LoRaWAN and ZigBee technologies operating at 868 MHz. For that purpose, a real urban utility tunnel was modeled and simulated by means of an in-house three-dimensional ray-launching (3D-RL) code. The utility tunnel scenario is a complex and singular environment in terms of radio wave propagation due to the limited dimensions and metallic elements within it, such as service trays, user pathways or handrails, which were considered in the simulations. The simulated 3D-RL algorithm was calibrated and verified with experimental measurements, after which, the simulation and measurement results showed good agreement. Besides, a complete wireless sensor network (WSN) deployment within the tunnels was presented, providing remote cloud data access applications and services, allowing infrastructure security and safety work conditions. The obtained results provided an adequate radio planning approach for the deployment of wireless systems in complex urban utility scenarios, with optimal coverage and enhanced quality of service. Full article

Nowadays with the evolution of Internet of Things (IoT), building a network of sensors for measuring data from remote locations requires a good plan considering a lot of parameters including power consumption. A Lot of communication technologies such as WIFI, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Lora, Sigfox, and GSM/GPRS are being used based on the application and this application will have some requirements such as communication range, power consumption, and detail about data to be transmitted. In some places, especially the hilly area like Rwanda and where GSM connectivity is already covered, GSM/GPRS may be the best choice for IoT applications. Energy consumption is a big challenge in sensor nodes which are specially supplied by batteries as the lifetime of the node and network depends on the state of charge of the battery. In this paper, we are focusing on static sensor nodes communicating using the GPRS protocol. We acquired current consumption for the sensor node in different locations with their corresponding received signal quality and we tried to experimentally find a mathematical data-driven model for estimating the GSM/GPRS sensor node battery lifetime using the received signal strength indicator (RSSI). This research outcome will help to predict GPRS sensor node life, replacement intervals, and dynamic handover which will in turn provide uninterrupted data service. This model can be deployed in various remote WSN and IoT based applications like forests, volcano, etc. Our research has shown convincing results like when there is a reduction of −30 dBm in RSSI, the current consumption of the radio unit of the node will double. Full article

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been used in many fields due to its wide applicability. In this kind of network, each node is independent of each other and has its own local clock and communicates wirelessly. Time synchronization plays a vital role in WSNs and it can ensure accuracy requirements for coordination and data reliability. However, two key challenges exist in large-scale WSNs that are severe resource constraints overhead and multihop time synchronization errors. To address these issues, this paper proposes a novel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted low-consumption time synchronization algorithm based on cross-technology communication (CTC) for a large-scale WSN. This algorithm uses a UAV to send time synchronization data packets for calibration. Moreover, to ensure coverage and a high success rate for UAV data transmission, we use CTC for time synchronization. Without any relays, a high-power time synchronization packet can be sent by a UAV to achieve the time synchronization of low-power sensors. This algorithm can achieve accurate time synchronization with almost zero energy consumption for the sensor nodes. Finally, we implemented our algorithm with 30 low-power RF-CC2430 ZigBee nodes and a Da Jiang Innovations (DJI) M100 UAV on a 1 km highway and an indoor site. The results show that time synchronization can be achieved accurately with almost zero energy consumption for the sensor nodes, and the time synchronization error is less than 30 $\mathsf{\mu }$s in 99% of cases. Full article