Lessons learned deploying an oyster farm monitoring auto-sustainable wireless sensor network and trial of a temperature and relative humidity–based transmission power control scheme. (March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ortega-Corral, César; Esqueda Elizondo, José Jaime; Acosta Del Campo, Oscar Ricardo; Palafox, Luis E; Aguilar, Leocundo; Guerra-Frausto, Ricardo; López Cruz, Florencio; Reyes, Roberto A; López-Montoya, Jesús Enrique; Chávez, Carlos
• Is Part Of: International journal of distributed sensor networks. Volume 13:Number 3(2017)
• Publication Date: 2017-03
• Subjects: Wireless sensor networks -- transmission power control -- renewable energy -- ubiquitous computing -- remote monitoring; Sensor networks -- Periodicals; Intelligent agents (Computer software) -- Periodicals; Multisensor data fusion -- Periodicals; 681.2
• DOI: 10.1177/1550147717697322
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1550-1329

Abstract

We present challenges faced deploying a solar-powered wireless sensor network base station and nodes, at a remote oyster farm. It involved installing the base station system and a data server at the shore of a shallow bay, where there is no electrical power available. To solve the problem, we set up a photovoltaic array with an energy monitoring node, from which performance metrics were recorded and plotted. At the water, we deployed two wireless sensor nodes on a raft, a kilometre away from the base station. One node was configured for sea water pH and water temperature ( Tw ) measurements. The other node was configured for salinity and Tw measurements. Furthermore, both nodes measured air temperature and relative humidity, for a more complete characterization. At the salinity node, temperature and relative humidity knowledge was crucial to determine a gain factor for doing a trial of a transmission power control scheme, using a novel temperature and relative humidity algorithm. To enable a fair comparison, the pH nodes transmitter was configured with a fixed power level. The nodes performances were measured locally at the base station, recording metrics such as received signal strength indicator and packet received rates.