Abstract
Microscale sensors provide critical solutions in diverse fields, ranging from measurement, automation, and control in industrial, agricultural, and biomedical applications. However, their development is limited by many requirements and challenges, such as efficient powering and the selection of suitable wireless communication technologies. A number of wireless communication technologies have been deployed in these sensors, including terahertz (Thz) radio frequency and ultrasound. Designing sensors in micro-scale imposes challenges for any communication technique deployed. This paper investigates the use of magnetic induction-based backscatter communication in a microscale sensor. The aim here is to provide both physical and media access control (MAC) layer design analysis for a microscale mote that is powered inductively and communicates with a reader using backscattering. Magnetic induction-based communication and powering are demonstrated via analysis and simulation for the mote. Then, low-power modulation, error-correction coding, and suitable low-power MAC schemes with evidence of feasible implementation in microscale are explored. Results of the performance analysis indicate that the proposed design achieves communication at a range of at least a few centimeters (5–6 cm) with an acceptable bit error rate (BER). Finally, MAC layer analysis reveals the optimum number of motes to be deployed for various read delays and transmission rates.
Highlights
Miniaturization of sensors to microscale holds great promise for enabling various applications in smart homes, smart cars, smart protective skins on air planes, biomedical wearables and implantables, industrial automation and control, smart agriculture, and smart power grids [1]
Okwori et al.: Towards Microscale near-field communication (NFC)-Enabled internet of things (IoT) Sensors: Physical and media access control (MAC) Layer Design Analysis ultrasonic waves suffer degradation in applications where the sensors are located in liquid and the reader is located in the air
Though quite a number of research studies have been done in the area of modeling and prototyping magnetic induction-based sensors, our work focuses on designs of the physical and MAC layers for a microscale mote
Summary
Miniaturization of sensors to microscale holds great promise for enabling various applications in smart homes, smart cars, smart protective skins on air planes, biomedical wearables and implantables, industrial automation and control, smart agriculture, and smart power grids [1]. M. Okwori et al.: Towards Microscale NFC-Enabled IoT Sensors: Physical and MAC Layer Design Analysis ultrasonic waves suffer degradation in applications where the sensors are located in liquid and the reader is located in the air. The performance of NFC, unlike that of ultrasonic and THz communications, is affected minimally by the environment of application This is due to the fact that magnetic permeability of many potential mediums such as air, water, soil, and human body is similar [12]. We investigate physical and media access control (MAC) layer designs for a sub-millimeter mote that is externally powered and communicates using magnetic induction with a handheld device.
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