Author:
David A. Border
Affiliation:
Bowling Green State University, United States
Keyword(s):
Wireless sensor networks, Motes, Event driven, Multithreaded, Zigbee.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Mobile Ad-Hoc and Sensor Networks
;
Mobile Software and Services
;
Sensor, Mesh and Ad Hoc Communications and Networks
;
Standardization Issues
;
Telecommunications
;
Wireless Information Networks and Systems
Abstract:
Hallmarks of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) include their use in demanding environment, autonomous and untethered operation, low power requirements, miniaturization and low costs. Such hallmarks led to the understandable requirement that WSN sensors contain a specialized microprocessor unit; an innovative microcontroller unit which is strikingly dissimilar to general purpose CPUs found in the marketplace today. This paper examines two important aspects of current sensor node development work, that of microcontroller Operating System (OS) architectures and transceiver standards. The choices of OS designs are intended to match and complement the usefulness of the sensor node itself, while meeting hardware constraints (e.g. memory limitations). The paper details these design choices and how they are being met. Of equal interest, the paper discusses how the choice of transceiver standards for the WSN is determined by the overall design goal of device autonomy. One such “device autonomy d
iscussion topic” relates to the reader how device power consumption levels are being reduced through the use of a newly developed transceiver standard.
(More)