Wireless Nano Senor Network (WNSN) for Trace Detection of Explosives: The Case of RDX and TNT

Received: 12 January 2019 Accepted: 6 April 2019 Due to enormous growth in explosives-based terrorism across the globe, the research on detection of explosives assumed unprecedented significance. It is more so in the wake of 9/11 and more recent incidents. There is no single solution for the menace of terrorism. One of the solutions is to detect explosives early and build counterintelligence to combat the man-made campaign. However, it is a challenging task to detect trace explosives due to low vapour pressure, increasing permutations in composition, avenues for deployment, and concealment. Many trace explosive detection systems came into existence. They include sensor based detection, Gas Chromatography (GC), Mass Spectrometry (MS), and Mobility Spectrometry (MS). These techniques need devices that are expensive, bulky and with operating procedures that are time taking. Deploying such devices in strategic areas is inadequate as the large scale usage of them is not possible. Therefore it is indispensable to have small inexpensive sensors, which are sensitive and selective, deployed in large scale. Nano sensor technology when leveraged to form a massive network has potential for detecting trace explosives. As a step toward the solution, we presented a methodology with Wireless Nano Sensor Network (WNSN) implemented using NS2 for simulation study of trace detection of explosives. We proposed an algorithm named Nano Trace Explosive Detection (NTED) to achieve this. As there was a plethora of explosives materials, we preferred the two most common explosives named TNT and RDX as case study. Our results revealed the significance and potential of WNSN for protecting people and properties from terror attacks.