WSN-SA: Design foundations for situational awareness systems based on sensor networks

Abstract

WSN-SA is a Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) framework that is been proposed to support rescue operations in collapsed structures, such as houses and buildings, after natural and human-made disasters. The sensors and actuators are deployed prior to the disaster and ideally such sensor network is a required infrastructure of any building. Such SA systems can help to indicate how to distribute the rescue resources and how to identify imminent risks for rescuers and survivors. So far, few situational awareness (SA) systems based on WSNs have been proposed and no long-term realization of such systems has been reported. The goal of this work is to provide the foundations to change this reality so it would be possible to see a SA system accompanying each existing fire system. To this end, a strong emphasis is given to a) the achievement of low total cost of ownership (TCO), b) reliability, c) and expandability for the adopted SA solution.

Energy Management Using a Situational Awareness-Centric Ad-Hoc Network in a Home Environment

“…The sensor nodes consume various amount of energy according to their corresponding status. The intelligent sensor consumes 1.65-W, 1.4-W, and 1.15-W, when functioning in the transmission, reception, and idle modes, respectively [19,20]. The first simulated scenario shows the energy efficiency enhancement in the SA-centric ad-hoc network versus the conventional ad-hoc network in which nodes that have no packets to exchange would switch to doze mode, in contrast with the idle mode in IEEE 802.11 while facing the same situation.…”

Case study on the reliability of unattended outdoor wireless sensor systems

“…For this example, a higher cost (or, alternatively, with a lower bandwidth) connectivity solution can be used only as a backup for the cheaper one (or with a higher bandwidth). Another example, is the usage of multiple energy reservoirs, such as backups batteries [14]. It is important to highlight that these guidelines (and the remaining ones in this section) are not tied to WSN scenarios.…”

Real-time tools for situational awareness and emergency management in transport infrastructures

“…The potential use of WSNs in emergency management has been present in the literature since 2000. Nevertheless, a survey (Silva A., 2013) analysed over 20 WSN-based systems addressing various aspects of disaster management (pre/post disaster, monitoring/event detection, situational awareness, localization, simulations, experiments) and concluded that such technology is still not widely considered at the emergency preparedness documentation of governmental or telecommunication organizations around the world. This is mainly due to the drawback represented by the economic feasibility while respecting the technical requirements related to functionality and reliability.…”