Cluster-centric medium access control for WSNs in structural health monitoring

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are designed for sensing phenomenon and acquiring data. In structural health monitoring (SHM) of critical infrastructure, increasingly large number of sensor nodes are deployed to acquire data at the spatial density needed for structural integrity assessment. After rare catastrophic events such as earthquakes, a large volume of data related to the event can be produced in an instant and need to be sent (to remote locations) for analysis. When many nodes are trying to transmit their data simultaneously, the contention for the wireless channel increases the probability of packet collisions resulting in packet drops, multiple retransmission attempts and consequently delays; it is also not uncommon to find certain nodes (e.g. closer to the sink) having better chances of successful transmission leading to biased data delivery. While clustering has been extensively used to reduce contention in wireless networks, researchers have not given adequate attention to cluster-level performance, preferring to focus on node-level performance. This paper presents a new perspective on cluster-based WSNs and proposes a cluster centric design that aims to tackle medium access control (MAC) layer congestion associated with burst packet generation in an unbiased manner, making it suitable for applications like SHM.

[1]  Jerome P. Lynch,et al.  A summary review of wireless sensors and sensor networks for structural health monitoring , 2006 .

[2]  Mingyan Liu,et al.  Networked Computing in Wireless Sensor Networks for Structural Health Monitoring , 2010, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking.

[3]  M. Mehdi Afsar,et al.  Clustering in sensor networks: A literature survey , 2014, J. Netw. Comput. Appl..

[4]  Á. Cunha,et al.  Experimental Modal Analysis of Civil Engineering Structures , 2006 .

[5]  Mário Alves,et al.  On packet size and error correction optimisations in low-power wireless networks , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Sensing, Communications and Networking (SECON).

[6]  L. Kleinrock,et al.  Packet Switching in Radio Channels: Part I - Carrier Sense Multiple-Access Modes and Their Throughput-Delay Characteristics , 1975, IEEE Transactions on Communications.

[7]  B A Cunha,et al.  The atypical pneumonias: clinical diagnosis and importance , 2006, Clinical Microbiology and Infection.

[8]  Kamin Whitehouse,et al.  Flash Flooding: Exploiting the Capture Effect for Rapid Flooding in Wireless Sensor Networks , 2009, IEEE INFOCOM 2009.

[9]  Jerome P. Lynch,et al.  Automated Modal Parameter Estimation by Parallel Processing within Wireless Monitoring Systems , 2008 .

[10]  V. C. Gungor,et al.  Wireless sensor networks for structure health monitoring: recent advances and future research directions , 2011 .

[11]  Winston Khoon Guan Seah,et al.  Event-driven energy-harvesting wireless sensor network for structural health monitoring , 2013, 38th Annual IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks.

[12]  Sang-Jo Yoo,et al.  Group Node Contention Algorithm for Avoiding Continuous Collisions in LR-WPAN , 2009, 2009 Ninth IEEE International Conference on Computer and Information Technology.

[13]  Yeqiong Song,et al.  CoSenS: A collecting and sending burst scheme for performance improvement of IEEE 802.15.4 , 2010, IEEE Local Computer Network Conference.

[14]  Chiara Buratti,et al.  Capture effect in IEEE 802.15.4 networks: Modelling and experimentation , 2010, IEEE 5th International Symposium on Wireless Pervasive Computing 2010.

[15]  Chao Yang,et al.  Energy efficient clustering for WSN-based structural health monitoring , 2011, 2011 Proceedings IEEE INFOCOM.

[16]  Marco Gruteser,et al.  Methods for restoring MAC layer fairness in IEEE 802.11 networks with physical layer capture , 2006, REALMAN '06.

[17]  Zhi Ang Eu,et al.  Wireless sensor networks powered by ambient energy harvesting (WSN-HEAP) - Survey and challenges , 2009, 2009 1st International Conference on Wireless Communication, Vehicular Technology, Information Theory and Aerospace & Electronic Systems Technology.

[18]  K. Leentvaar,et al.  The Capture Effect in FM Receivers , 1976, IEEE Trans. Commun..

[19]  Chenyang Lu,et al.  Cyber-Physical Codesign of Distributed Structural Health Monitoring with Wireless Sensor Networks , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems.