
Open access
Author
Date
2018-06-25Type
- Master Thesis
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
In the rapidly advancing world of wireless embedded systems, sensor networks
(WSNs) are becoming increasingly more applicable for data gathering applications.
When designed for such applications, the design goals are most often
defined in terms of communication reliability, flexible data-rates, and network
life-time. One of the application domains that will benefit from improvement in
these metrics, is the area of environmental monitoring. Of particular interest is
the use of sensor networks in cryosphere research. To monitor the stability of
high-alpine mountain slopes, several low-power wireless communication protocols
have been proposed and deployed over time. Among them are the Low-Power
Wireless Bus (LWB) and Dozer protocols, introduced by the TIK research group
at ETH Zurich. In their own way, both LWB and Dozer have proven to be efficient
and reliable means of wireless communication. Being tested in the field,
these state of the art communication protocols have been operational in previous
monitoring systems for over a decade. However, even whilst being functional,
these prior deployment’s processing, bandwidth, and storage capacities remain
limited. In an effort to construct a new monitoring system, the aim is to include
a communication protocol that shows favorable scaling properties in battery life
(duty cycle) versus bandwidth. Determining which protocol to choose, however,
remains problematic due to the lack of appropriate performance data. To address
this issue, this report studies the currently deployed solutions (LWB and
Dozer) by deriving predictive models and comparing both protocols’ performance
in terms of duty cycle versus bandwidth. In doing so, this report shows that: (i)
given a 10-node network, the Dozer and LWB analytical models can predict the
duty cycle with approximately 95 percent accuracy when compared to the actual
implementation; (ii) an alteration of the topology control for Dozer (in a 10-node
network) can lead to improvements in duty cycle of up to 40 percent without
significantly impacting the stability; (iii) LWB shows more favorable results in
terms of duty cycle when compared to the normal Dozer implementation, but
is only favorable in low bandwidth situations when compared to Dozer with improved
topology control; (iv) given a 10-minute window, Dozer experiences less
instability events, such as packet re-transmissions or beacon misses. LWB shows
more stability issues, but the additional radio on-time is limited as the slot sizes
are of fixed duration. Both protocols are reliable in the sense that no packets are
lost. With previous findings taken into consideration, if it is possible to adjust
the topology control for Dozer for a given network, a combination of LWB and
Dozer might offer the most optimal solution. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000276222Publication status
publishedContributors
Examiner: Nabi Najafabadi, Majid
Examiner: Jacob, Romain

Examiner: Beutel, Jan

Examiner: Thiele, Lothar
Examiner: Ozcelebi, Tanir
Publisher
Computer Engineering and Networks Laboratory, ETH ZurichSubject
Communication protocols; Model based simulations; Low-Power Embedded SystemsOrganisational unit
03429 - Thiele, Lothar (emeritus) / Thiele, Lothar (emeritus)
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ETH Bibliography
yes
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