Hierarchical sensor network architecture for stationary smart node supervision

Abstract

Most wireless sensor networks base their design on an ad hoc (multi-hop) network technology that focus on organizing and maintaining a network formed by a group of moving objects with a communication device in an area with no fixed base stations or access points. Although ad hoc network technologies are capable of constructing a sensor network, the design and implementation of sensor networks for monitoring stationary nodes such as construction sites and nature-disaster-prone areas can be furthered simplified to reduce power consumption and overhead. Based on the nature of immobile nodes, a hierarchical sensor network architecture and its associated communication protocols are proposed in this paper. In this proposed architecture, most elements in the sensor network are designed to be equipped with no functions for message forwarding or channel scheduling. The local control center uses a centralized communication protocol to communicate with each sensor node. The local control center can also use ad hoc network technology to relay the data between each of the sensors. This approach not only minimizes the complexity of the sensor nodes implemented but also significantly reduces the cost, size and power consumption of each sensor node. In addition, the benefit of using ad-hoc network technology is that the local controller retains its routing capabilities. Therefore, power efficiency and communication reliability can be both achieved and maximized by this type of hierarchical sensor network.