Reliability Performance of Wireless Sensor Network for Civil Infrastructure – Part I: Experimental Analysis

Abstract

Ubiquitous computing has changed the shape of the construction industry by providing a tool of automated sensing and monitoring the construction events using wireless sensor networks (WSNs). On the other hand, wireless signals are vulnerable to a range of environmental factors, such as obstructions from built structures, construction materials and equipment. Moreover, attenuation of the signal performance from the obstructions might reduce the reliability of the WSN performance for possible applications to civil infrastructure. This paper reports the experimental findings by simulating detailed obstruction environments using major construction materials to analyze the performance reliability of wireless communication. The T-R separation distance, construction materials, and their thickness have been identified as potential attenuation components, which were also analyzed quantitatively using the path loss exponent, attenuation index and cumulative beta distribution. The results from this research are expected help general civil engineers evaluate the performance of WSNs in the applications of civil infrastructure.

Considerations regarding security issues impact on systems availability

“…The results found in Jang et al [11] provide a knowledge base in the area of sensor hardware design, field data collection, WSN application strategy and network topology design. Jang et al conclude that the different characteristics of construction materials may affect the level of reliability performance in wireless communication.…”

A Novel Wireless Sensor Network Architecture Based on Cloud Computing and Big Data

“…Moreover, the SVC4WSN was compared with Multi-Hop Direct Forwarding for Local Wireless Sensor Network (MDF4LWSN) in terms of energy efficiency, transmission delay and data storage. The simulation was implemented in Matlab8.0, and the program design of sensor node was carried out in TinyOS2.1 [8,9].…”

Cluster-Based Node Placement Approach for Linear Pipeline Monitoring

“…In a different way from the typical WSNs applications, WSNs can be applied for assessing the health status of key structures such as bridges, highways, pipelines, etc. [3]- [5].…”