Development of an IoT-based Atmospheric
Environment Monitoring System
Seung Ho Kim Jong Mun Jeong
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Changwon, Korea Changwon, Korea
shk0529@changwon.ac.kr jhs7986@gmail.com
Abstract—Recently, as the damage of air pollution due to fine
dusts, etc. has been continuously increased, there is a growing
need for a low-cost air quality monitoring system to observe air
pollution information at public facilities or homes. In this paper,
we propose an IoT (Internet of Things)-based atmospheric
environment monitoring system which can effectively observe air
pollution information without restriction of place or space. The
proposed system consists of an atmospheric environment
measuring device and an atmospheric environment analyzer, in
which the system has been developed to be able to collect and
analyze atmospheric environment measurement results in a
server through an LTE communication network. The
atmospheric environment information obtained from the
development system was compared with the observation results
provided by the National Ambient air quality Monitoring
Information System (NAMIS).
Keywords—c IoT/M2M, LTE, TCP/IP, NAMIS, Atmospheric
environment monitoring, Fine dust(PM 10, PM2.5), Ozone, SO2, NO2.
I. INTRODUCTION
Recently, with the increasing interest in the Internet of
Things (IoT), the interest in cellular IoT is growing such that
the LTE-Advanced Release-13 standard of 3GPP (the 3rd
Generation Partnership Project) introduced a Narrowband IoT
technology to provide services over wide [1, 2].
Meanwhile, as the damage from air pollution due to fine
dust and ozone increases continuously, interest in the
atmospheric environment is increasing rapidly around the
world. According to the recent study [3], fine dust is mainly
caused by combustion of fossil fuel, and it is known to act as a
main factor causing or exacerbating various lung diseases in
the human body [3]. Ozone is caused by the photochemical
reaction of NO2 and volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
emitted from automobile exhaust gas and the like due to strong
sunlight, which causes respiratory system diseases [4].
Hence, there is a growing need for an atmospheric
environment monitoring system capable of effectively
measuring and analyzing contaminants in the air as the hazard
of air pollution becomes serious. For this purpose, a
government-led air monitoring system in most countries is
installed to provide information on air pollution to users by
Identify applicable funding agency here. If none, delete this text box.
XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©20XX IEEE
978-1-5090-4032-2/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
Min Tae Hwang Chang Soon Kang
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Changwon, Korea Changwon, Korea
professorhwang@gmail.com cskang@changwon.ac.kr
observing the atmospheric environment [5], and air pollution
information observed through the National Ambient air quality
Monitoring Information System (NAMIS) of Korea
Environment Corporation is also provided to the public [6].
However, the NAMIS consists of high-cost atmospheric
environment measurement equipment, and thus, it is very
expensive to build a new atmospheric environment
measurement station. Therefore, there is a desperate need for
an atmospheric environment monitoring system that can
effectively provide atmospheric environmental observation
results to public facilities such as kindergartens and schools, or
homes and commercial facilities in the area where the NAMIS'
atmospheric environment measurement station is not operated.
In this paper, we propose an IoT-based atmospheric
monitoring system using LTE mobile communication network
(Long Term Evolution) in order to solve the problems such as
cost and the restrictions in the installation place and space of
existing atmospheric environment measuring equipment. The
proposed system has been developed as a prototype that
measures various air environment information including fine
dusts and ozone in the atmospheric environment measuring
device and transmits the packet including the measured
information as well as the location and operation status of the
measuring device to the LTE network and analyzes them on
the server.
II. SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
The following requirements are considered for the
proposed IoT-based atmospheric monitoring system. 1) It is
necessary to be able to access the mobile communication
network that provides wide coverage in order to measure the
atmospheric environment information without restriction on
the place or location and to transmit it to the server. 2) In
addition, it is capable of measuring various types of air
environment information including fine dusts, and also
provides a visualized result form so that users can conveniently
use the results through web or smart phone application. The
proposed system consists of atmospheric environment
measurement device, atmospheric environment analyzer, and
user application as shown in Fig. 1.
861 ICTC 2017
 smartphone application, and web, and provides the user with
the observation results of atmospheric environment.

III. FIELD TRIALS ADD DISCUSSIONS

Two atmospheric environment measurement devices of the
development system are respectively installed both in the
Haman industrial complex areas, Gyeongnam Province, and on
the rooftop of the Building 51 in Changwon National
University located in the green area of Changwon city.
Especially, 8 types of air environment information such as fine
dust (PM10), ultrafine dust (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) are observed
by the development system in 30 minute period (basic mode),
as shown in Table I, and the concentrations of fine dust and
ozone are compared with those of the NAMIS. Here, the
Fig. 1. Detailed configuration of the proposed system.
observation results of the NAMIS are those of the Hoewon
measuring station near the Haman industrial complex and the
Yongji measuring station near the Changwon National
University.

Fig. 2. TCP packet structure for measurement results

The atmospheric environment measurement device makes

the environment measurement results with the TCP
(Transmission Packet Protocol) packet as shown in Fig. 2, and
transmits it to the atmospheric environment analyzer through
the LTE network. The atmospheric environment analyzer
receives the 'atmospheric environment measurement result' in
the TCP packet and performs error verification for the
measurement results. We have developed a prototype of IoT Fig. 3. Comparison ofGine-dust concentration observed by the development
based atmospheric environment monitoring system composed system during 1 week (5/22/17~ 5/28/17).
of atmospheric environment measuring device, atmospheric
environment analyzer, and user application. The sensors used
to measure the atmospheric composition in the atmospheric
environment measurement device are shown in [Table 1].

TABLE I.  SPECIFICATIONS OF SENSORS

Sensor Models Measurement Components

DHT-11 • Temperature/Humidity Sensor
MQ-7 • CO Sensor
MQ-131 • O3 Sensor
GSBT11 • VOCs Sensor
Fig. 4. Comparison of ozone concentration observed by the development
GSNT11 • NO2 Sensor system during 1 week (5/22/17~ 5/28/17).
2SH12 • SO2 Sensor
PM2007 • PM10/PM2.5 Sensor
NEO-6M-GPS • GPS Receiver

The atmospheric environment analyzer is implemented in

the atmospheric environment analysis server based on the C #
Winform, the DBMS (database management system, MS-SQL)
and web server (Apache HTTP Server) in the Windows10.
Especially, the environment analysis server has been developed
to be convenient for users through the graphical interface of the
C # Winform. The user application is implemented in the C #
WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) based PC program, Fig. 5. Figure 6. Comparison of fine-dust concentration observed by the
development system on 5/23/17.

862
 Figs. 3 and 4 show the comparison in the daily average Changwon National University. On the other hand, the average
concentration of fine dust and ozone observed for one week daily ozone concentration is the highest observed in the
(5/22/17~5/28/17) through the measurement device (Device_1) NAMIS’ Yongji station, and followed by the NAMIS’ Hoewon
installed in the Haman industrial complex and the station, the measuring site in the Changwon National
measurement device (Device_2) installed in the Changwon University, and the Haman industrial complex’s measuring site.
National University, respectively. The concentration of fine It can be seen that the higher the amount of traffic near the
dust in the Haman industrial complex is higher than that measuring station, the higher the ozone concentration is
measured at the Changwon National University, and the ozone observed
concentration of the Changwon National University is higher
than that of the Haman industrial complex. Fig. 5 shows the IV. CONCLUSION
concentration of fine dust in the time period (9:00 am to 8:00
pm) on May 23, which has the highest average fine dust In this paper, we have proposed an IoT-based atmospheric
concentration within one week observed from the Haman environment monitoring system, which is developed by a
industrial complex (Fig. 5). The concentration of fine dust in prototype with a small size, low cost and eco-friendly air
the morning time is the highest at the factory, and after 5 pm, environment measurement device connected by the LTE
the concentration of fine dust decreases greatly. network, and the atmospheric environment analyzer. The
development system has no restriction on installation location
or installation space.
The observation results at two measuring sites of the
development system installed both in the Changwon National
University and the Haman industrial complex area, are
compared with the results observed by the nearby two NAMIS’
measuring stations of the Yongji station and Hoewon station.
The development system observes the atmospheric
environment elements similarly, even though it is difficult to
directly compare the observation results of the two systems due
to the different locations in the measurement sites of the two
systems. The development system can easily change measuring
sensors, and compatible with various communication systems
Fig. 6. Comparison of ozone concentration observed by the development such as the WIFI and the Ethernet as well as the LTE
system on 5/22/17.
communication network for the transmission of the
Fig. 6 shows the ozone concentration of the time zone (9:00 measurement results. It is expected that the development
am to 8:00 pm) on May 22, the average ozone concentration system will be effectively utilized in atmospheric environment
for 1 week observed at the Changwon National University (Fig. based services by installing the developed measurement
6). In the afternoon (12:00 am to 5:00 pm) when the solar devices at public facilities such as schools and homes, in
radiation is high, the concentration is the highest, and it can be addition to the areas where the NAMIS' measuring stations are
observed that the average standard value (0.06 ppm) for 1 hour not built.
is over 30%.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
TABLE II.  DAILY AVERAGE RESULTS MEASURED BY THE NAMIS The authors of this paper were partly supported by the
(5/22/17~5/28/17) Brain Korea21Plus Projects.
Measurement Yongji Station Hoewon Station
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