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2015 IEEE Student Conference on Research and Development (SCOReD)

Hardware Comparison Capturing Received Signal


Strength Indication (RSSI) for Wireless Sensors
Network (WSN)
M.I. Jais1, P. Ehkan6, R.B. Ahmad7, I. Ismail8 T.Sabapathy2, M. Jusoh3, H.A. Rahim4,
2,3
1,4,5,6
Embedded, Network and Advance Computing (ENAC) Radio Engineering Research Group (RERG)
School of Computer and Communication Engineering
School of Computer and Communication Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Perlis
Universiti Malaysia Perlis
Pauh Putra, Perlis, Malaysia
Pauh Putra, Perlis, Malaysia
[email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected],6,
[email protected]
[email protected], iszaidyismail.gmail.com8

M.F. Malek5
University of Wollongong in Dubai
Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences
Knowledge Village Dubai
United Arab Emirates
[email protected]

Abstract— Wireless sensor network (WSN) is commonly used for sometimes it is not feasible. Therefore, nodes should estimate
localization analysis. Through sniffing receive signal strength their own locations through several methods. WSN is
indication (RSSI) in WSN system, localization of higher RSSI is composed of spatially distributed nodes equipped with sensing
connected automatically. This paper proposes the Raspberry-Pi devices to monitor and to measure characteristics of the
(RasPi) based sensor node to sniffing RSSI and automatically physical environment at different locations. WSNs are
connect the device to strongest RSSI. The RasPi brings the designed and deployed for different purposes by various
advantages of a personal computer (PC) to the domain of sensor organizations. WSN based monitoring applications range from
network which makes it as the perfect platform for interfacing with a
simple data gathering, to complex Internet-based information
wide variety of external peripherals. Comparative analysis of its key
elements and performances with some of current existing wireless systems. In other words, the observations obtained from
sensor nodes has shown that despite the few disadvantages, the RasPi sensor networks may be helpful in many software applications
remains an inexpensive single board computer (SBC) with its very like environmental, industrial and meteorological monitoring,
successfull use in sensor network domain and diverse range of building and home automation, medicine, urban sensor
research applications. networks, intelligent transportation, security, military defense,
etc [1]. Sensor nodes are the small, low power single board
Keywords— Wireless sensor network (WSN), Raspberry-Pi (RasPi), computers with a radio for wireless communication. Number
Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) and types of sensors depend on the applications. Sensor nodes
I. INTRODUCTION collect and transfer data using four stages: collecting the data,
processing the data, packaging the data and communicating
the data [5]. In this work, the main objective is to observe
A WSN is a network of devices that have sensing, abilities of SBC especially Ras-Pi to perform as RSSI sensor
actuation, processing, and wireless communication capability. based of centre processing unit (CPU) and memory
Wireless sensor networks have several potential applications, performance.
especially in the area of transportation operations[1]–[4].
Sensor scans are used to detect physical phenomena, such as The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In
motion and acceleration. The collected and processed sensor section II, the overview of overall system architecture.
data can be transmitted through wireless links. Position Followed in section III, the experiment methodology are
monitoring or also known as location estimation is the process described. In section IV, significant result are review and
of obtaining location of a sensor node. The effective use of the discussed. Finally, conclusion this paper in section V.
data from the sensors, position of the sensors must be known.
Finding the location of the nodes manually is costly and

278
2015 IEEE Student Conference on Research and Development (SCOReD)

II. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE Numerous method of RasPi usage with sensors, displays
and motors is given in [10]. In the workshop [11], a RasPi is
A unique design and implementation of a secure sensor used to read sensors (inputs), store their values in a database
node has been carried out based on three major components: a for historical trending and turn relays (outputs) on and off
single board computer, wi-fi adapter module and various when a sensor value goes outside of a certain range. The
routers as an access point (AP). In this section, overview of specification of RasPi is shown in Table I.
the hardware architecture and software involves in this
TABLE I. Comparison Experimental Platform
proposed experimental.

A. Raspberry-Pi Operating Wi-Fi


Name Processor Memory
System Module
RasPi is education oriented pocket size single board Intel (R)
Intel(R)
computer (SBC) with small size, inexpensive and hackable. Dell Core(TM) i5-
Ubuntu Dual
Due to its low price and capability to be as aperfect platform 4GB 14.04 LTS Band
Inspiron 4210
64 Bits Wireless-
for interfacing with many devices, theRasPi has been adopted (2.4GHz)
AC 3160
as sensor node to process the RSSI information. Bluetooth
1GB
Intel ATOM with
DDR2-667 Ubuntu
Processor Enhanced
Lenovo SDRAM 12.04 LTS
N270 (1.6 Data Rate
SO-DIMM 32-Bits
GHz) (BDC-
(PC2-5300)
2.1)
ARMv6 512 MB TP-Link
Raspi-B+ Single-Core SDRAM @ Raspbian TL-
(700MHz) 400 MHz WN722N
ARMv7 1 GB TP-Link
Raspi- 2 Quad-Core SDRAM @ Raspbian TL-
(900MHz) 400 MHz WN722N

B. Communication Devices

A key evaluation metric for any WSN is its


(a) (b) communication rate, power consumption, and range. In order
to create an interconnected network on real scenarios, various
Fig. 1. Raspberry. (a) Model Pi2. (b) Model B+ nodes be placed far apart and randomly.

The RasPi board consists of a processor and graphics chip,


program memory (RAM) and various interfaces and
connectors for external devices . All RasPi models have the
similar CPU named BCM2835 which is low cost, low power
consumption and it is powerful [5]–[7]. Figure 1 shows the
two types of RasPi model. Both of this model is used in this
work to implement the sensor node system. In similar way
like a standard PC, RasPi with a keyboard for command entry,
a display unit and a power supply. Mini-SD Flash memory
card is configured in such a way to represent a hard drive to
RasPi processor. The unit is powered via the micro USB Fig. 2. TP-Link 54 Mbps Wireless Adapter
connector. Internet connectivity is set through either via an
Ethernet/LAN cable or via a USB dongle (WiFi connectivity) The Ethernet port is the RasPi main gateway for
[8], [9]. Like any other computer, the RasPi also uses an communication with other devices and the Internet. However,
operating system and the “stock” OS is a flavor of Linux wireless adapter TP-Link in Figure 2 is deployed with RasPi-
called Raspbian. Linux, as a free and open source program, is for this experiment. Wireless adapter attached with RasPi
a great match for RasPi. Since it is free, it keeps the price of have 54 Mbps. Meanwhile, for another competitor platforms
the platform low.On the other hand, it makes the RasPi more deploy, build in wireless adapter as shown in Table I. All
hack-able. There are also a few non-Linux OS options WiFi adapters will connect with multiple access point.
available [8], [9]. The additional hardware and software
requirements can be achieved by already existing hardware
modules and open source software. One of the great things
about the RasPi is that it has a wide range of usage.

279
2015 IEEE Student Conference on Research and Development (SCOReD)

C. Software Structure

The Python version 2.7 is adopted to program the sensor


node. Python is one of common use programming high-level
language. Python is used to to program the RSSI detection
and selection based on th highest RSSI. A detailed
information of the programming is presented in the next
section.
III. EXPERIMENTAL METHODOLOGY

The flow chart depicted in Figure 3 demonstrates the


operation of the proposed system. Based on this flow chart,
before the capturing starts, the user needs to scan all incoming
RSSI. Each platform absorbs any incoming RSSI from the
Fig. 4. Topography of RSSI capturing system.
various router for (tens) 10 times as demonstrated in Figure 4.
Simultaneously, the RSSI value is sort out according to the
maximum value and after capturing RSSI process end, the IV. SYSTEM PERFORMANCE EVOLUTION AND
WiFi module is connected to the higher incoming RSSI value. DISCUSSION
This process is repeated for all experimental platforms. Each
platform has differences architecture as shown in Table I. The
main reason of this research work is to prove that RasPi can
perform as a sensor node in WSN for localization purpose.

Fig. 5. Screenshot of RSSI value of Ubuntu through Python 2.7

Fig. 6. Screenshot of RSSI value on Raspbian through Python 2.7

Fig. 3. Overall Flowchart of RSSI capturing system

280
2015 IEEE Student Conference on Research and Development (SCOReD)

A. CPU result (between Board)


Memory performance (%) = (Memory performance / Total
memory – free space) x 100% (2)

Fig. 8 illustrates the memory used for sensoring RSSI by


every platform. Average memory used by Dell and RasPi-2 is
around 20% - 30%. Therefore, Lenovo netbook and RasPi-B+
used 58% and 68% respectively. Although Lenovo netbook
and RasPi used more than 50% memory caused by other
process, but during capturing RSSI actually it does not
influence percentage of the memory usage. Surprisingly,
RasPi-2 takes less memory usage compared than memory
usage compared than others platform. Hence, it is evident that
RasPi-2 can perform as RSSI capturing and processing
incoming RSSI in WSN system.

V. CONCLUSION
In this work, we have designed a secure sensor node
prototype at a low cost. The RasPi is the best choice because
Fig. 7. CPU Performances during Sniffing RSSI Value of its high performance, affordable with the cost, good
memory capacity and being the cheapest single board
CPU performance (%) = 100 % – CPU idle % (1) computer available in the market as discussed in section II.
Furthermore, the Linux operating system usage provides
CPU utilization analysis is shown in Figure 7. As can be additional advantages of using RasPi as a SensorWeb node.
observed in Figure 7, all types of platforms finished scanning Programming in high-level language, the implemented
and capturing RSSI below than 30 seconds. However, solution is quite simple and it is enabled for a large number of
platform Dell and RasPi-2 show a lowers CPU usage users, as opposed to micro controller programming which
compared than other platform. Meanwhile, RasPi-B+ used the usually depends of development kit. Overall, the
highest CPU usage because it's internal hardware developedplatform successful in capturing and sorting
specification, formerly lower compared than other platforms. incoming RSSI in 30 Seconds. The performance evaluated in
However, RasPi-B+ still compatible with running a sensor terms of CPU and Memory usage shows the credit card size
node to capturing incoming RSSI. The unstable graph computer is competent to act as WSN because ease to hack-
occurred due to the background process which runs able and mobility. However, background process of all
simultaneously. platforms during capturing RSSI, sometimes affect the
performance of platforms, but this problem can be
encountered by terminating unwanted background process.
B. Memory result (between Board)
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