A modular architecture for wireless sensor network nodes

Abstract

The system level hardware architecture of individual nodes in a wireless distributed sensor network has not received adequate attention. A large portion of the development work in wireless sensor networks has been devoted to the networking layer or the network communications, but considering the tight integration required between the hardware and software on each node can result in major benefits in power, performance, and usability as well. A novel hardware architecture based on the concept of task specific modular computing provides both the high flexibility and power efficiency required for effective distributed sensing solutions. A comparative power analysis with a traditional, centralized architecture gives a justifying motivation for pursuing the modular architecture. 1 Finally, three decentralized module self-control mechanisms developed to minimize total system power will be presented and explained in detail.

Hybrid emergency radiation detection: a wireless sensor network application for consequence management of a radiological release

“…For complex number crunching task a DSP board can be plugged into the PCI bus of a computer and it can operate as a co-processor. In a similar way we propose a modular approach to wireless sensor networks that provides the ability to snap together the parts of the system and system capabilities required to perform the given task 18 . This makes the system scaleable for any given task and provides mission specific specialization to cover a multitude of tasks without generalizing.…”