NODES AND NETWORK ITCE 419

ARCHITECTURE Semester 1 – 2017/2018

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Terms Subsystem Software Network Protocols Roles Design Considerat Single-hop Energy-
s Stack ion vs multi- efficient
hop operation

AGENDA
ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 2
INTRODUCTION
This topic is divided into
 Sensor node architecture
 Terms
 Subsystems
 Processing
 Sensing
 Communication
 Power
 Other
 Software
 Wireless sensor network Architecture
 Network Stack
 Roles
 Design
 Considerations
 Connection types

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 3

NODE ARCHITECTURE The main element of WSN

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 4

SIMPLE NODE VIEW
Tmote Sky from moteiv (match box size)

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 5

SIMPLE NODE VIEW

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 6

SENSOR NODE
▪The basic component of the WSN
▪Self-operated and managed
▪Should be capable to fulfill all its tasks
▪Main tasks
 Collects data from the environment
 Process information locally
 Communicate collected information with neighbors

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 7

FEATURES
Should be
 Small in size
 Affordable price
 Energy efficient
 Enough resources to fulfill its tasks
http://www.libelium.com
 Ready to be equipped with needed sensors and peripherals

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 8

FEATURES http://www.libelium.com/mysignals-
helps-to-reduce-maternal-deaths-in-
dominican-republic/

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 9

TERMS
▪Mote: sensor node with the wireless module
▪Sensor board: board with one or more sensors
▪Gateway (Programming board): provides interfaces to other systems

MTS300 Sensor Board Stargate GW from Crossbow Compact

Libelium Waspmote v15 Flash connector, ethernet, serial USB
Light, Temp, and Acoustic
ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 10
 Main Subsystems
 Processing
 Sensing
 Communication
 Power

There could be
additional subsystems
upon need
 GPS
 Actuators

The subsystems and the

trade-off between
power consumption and
SUBSYSTEMS fulfilling the nodes
tasks

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 11

PROCESSING
SUBSYSTEM
▪Central element of the node

▪Connects to sensing and communication

subsystems

▪Gets power from the power subsystem

▪Communication interfaces are limited by

the size (ignore parallel buses)
▪ Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)
▪ Inter-integrated Circuit (I2C)
▪ For more about SPI and I2C check
Fundamentals of Wireless Sensor
Networks: Theory and Practice by
W. Dargie (2010)

▪Tradeoff between energy and This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

performance

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 12

PROCESSING SUBSYSTEM
Consist of
▪Controller
▪Memory (built-in or removable)
▪Active memory (RAM kind)
▪Internal clock
Controller tasks
▪Collects data from sensors
▪Process collected data
▪Receives data from other nodes
▪Send data
▪Where and when to send
▪Communication process
▪Execute program codes
ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 13
OPTIONS
Controller Options
▪Microcontrollers
▪processors designed for embedded systems
▪Flexible and simple usage
▪Flexible in connecting with other devices (sensors)
▪Low power consumption
▪Built-in memory (often)
▪Programable (DSPs)

▪Field-Programable Gate Arrays (FPGA)

▪Can be re-programable at the field
▪Takes time to re-program
▪Consumes power

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 14

OPTIONS
Controller options (cont.)
▪Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)
▪Custom designed (fully- or half- customized) processor for certain application
▪Noise cancelation and signal quality enhancement
▪Benefits
▪Performance
▪Energy efficient
▪Lose flexibility
▪Higher price
▪Suitable for networks that are fixed in duties with large number of nodes

Memory options
▪RAM
▪ROMs
▪EEPROM, and flash memory

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 15

CONTROLLER ARCHITECTURES
Von Neumann architecture
▪uses single memory to store the program instructions and collected data
▪With single bus that connects it to processor
▪cannot be accessed at the same time

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 16

CONTROLLER ARCHITECTURES
Harvard architecture
▪ Separate storage for each program instructions and collected data
▪ Each has a bus that connects it to the processor
▪ can be accessed at the same time
▪ support multitasking
▪ No virtual memory or memory protection

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 17

CONTROLLER ARCHITECTURES
Super-Harvard architecture (SHARC)
▪new components
▪Internal instruction cache (for frequent used instructions)
▪Can use unused program memory for data (temporary)
▪External I/O devices can be connected directly to the memory
▪ Direct Memory Access DMA
▪ Reserve the processor cycles

▪Additional interface for other peripherals

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 18

PROCESSING SUBSYSTEM OPTIONS
▪Microcontrollers
▪Digital Signal processor
▪Application-Specific Integrated Circuit
▪Field Programmable Gate Array

Pros and Cons of each & application areas ???

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 19

 The three controller architecture figures are from: Fundamentals of Wireless Sensor Networks:
Theory and Practice by W. Dargie (2010)

CONTROLLER ARCHITECTURES SHARC architecture

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 20

SENSING
SUBSYSTEM
▪Ancient sensor (more than 2000
years ago)
▪ Houfeng Didong Yi (seismoscope)
▪ By Zhang Heng a Chinese Scholar
▪ 132BC
▪ Detects earthquakes remotely
▪ Hundreds of Kilometers away.

▪There are other sensors that has been

developed long time ago
▪ Magnometer

▪Each Mote has

▪ One or more sensors
▪ One or more ADC
▪ Multiplexing mechanism

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 21

SEISMOSCOPE - ZHANG HENG http://seismoscope.allshoo
kup.org/

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 22

SENSING SUBSYSTEM

▪Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) revolutionize

sensors world
 Variety of sensors for different types of physical attributes
 Affordable prices

▪Sensors has transducer

 converts one form of energy to another form of energy (usually electrical)

▪Processor needs to know about the sensed parameters

and required accuracy
▪ To select the proper quantization levels (and for more accuracy)
 8 bits will help in 0.5 change, and 11 bits will help in 0.0625 in change

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 23

SENSING SUBSYSTEMS
▪Analog output
▪ADC to connect to the processing subsystem
▪Some sensors have their own ADC
▪ connect directly to the processor

▪Multi- ADC Channels

▪ Produce crosstalk
▪ Increase noise (Reduce SNR at individual channels)
▪ Good with low frequency signals

▪Most microcontrollers have one or more internal ADCs

▪ Direct connection with Analog devices

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 24

SENSING SUBSYSTEM
Categories
▪Passive omnidirectional sensors ▪Passive narrow-beam sensors
▪ Collects data without manipulating the ▪ Collects data without manipulating the
environment - no active probes environment
▪ Some are self-powered ▪ Limited direction of data collection
▪ Examples ▪ Example
▪ Thermometer ▪ Camera
▪ Light sensor

▪Active sensors
▪ Probes the environment to collects data
▪ Examples
▪ Radar
▪ Sonar

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 25

COMMUNICATION SUBSYSTEM

▪The interface options between subsystems.

▪Serial Vs parallel !
▪Serial port options: SPI, GPIO,SDIO, USB, etc..

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 26

TRANSCEIVER

▪Needs
▪ Transmitter
▪ Receiver

▪Converts the bits received from the processer to radio

waves
▪Receives radio waves
▪The device that does both those tasks is called transceiver.
▪Most energy consumption
▪Should be managed (idle, sleep, active states)
ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 27
TRANSCEIVER
Main transceiver tasks and characteristics
▪Service to upper layer: interface for above protocols
▪Carrier frequency and multiple channels: match the application
requirements
▪Data rates: carrier freq., bandwidth, modulation, and coding technique
▪Modulations: support more than one modulation technique
▪Transmission power control: manage the power when transmitting signal
▪Gain: ratio between output and input powers
▪Receiver sensitivity: minimum received signal power needed to process the
signal
▪Range: surrounding of the transceiver with good signal and low interference

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 28

POWER SUBSYSTEM
Provides power to other ▪External power source may not
subsystems always be available
Important resource ▪Solar may not be available
indoor, underground or deep sea
Options
 Batteries ▪Energy scavenging is still an
 Rechargeable immature technology
 Non-rechargeable
 Dc-DC conversion ▪Energy efficient at all levels
 Constant power at the circuitry
 Predictable performance during lifetime Energy scavenging approaches
 Faster to flat battery ▪ Photovoltaics
 Consume power for its operation ▪ Temperature gradients
 Energy scavenging ▪ Vibration
 Gets energy from the surrounding ▪ Pressure variation
▪ Flow of air/water

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 29

WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK Working all together as a

ARCHITECTURE full system

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 30

 Those distributed nodes are
able to collect data and
FULL PICTURE route the data to the
sink/gateway and to the
back-system
ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 31
FULL PICTURE
▪Sensor nodes two functionalities
▪Data originating
▪Data routing
▪The sink may get connected with the back-system via
▪Direct connection
▪4G
▪Wi-Fi
▪Satellite system
▪others
▪May be single or multiple
▪Sink
▪Back-system

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 32

TYPES OF DEVICES
▪Sources of data: Measure data, report them “somewhere”
▪Typically equip with different kinds of sensors

▪Sinks of data: Interested in receiving data from WSN

▪May be part of the WSN or external entity, PDA, gateway, …

▪Actuators: Control some device based on data, usually also a sink

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 33

EXAMPLE WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK
SCENARIO
▪Remote users query the wireless sensor network for data
▪ What is the humidity level at Dohat Arad?

▪WSNs send information update to users

▪ Soil moisture in patch x is y
▪ The position of the tank #5 is (x,y,z)

Internet Remote
users
Gateway
node

Wireless sensor network

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 34
PROTOCOL STACK

▪Unique characteristics of WSN

▪Five layers stack
▪More considerations
▪ power and routing awareness
▪ Integrates data with networking
protocols
▪ Communicates and power efficiently
through the wireless medium
▪ Promotes cooperative efforts of sensor
nodes.

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 35

PROTOCOL STACK
▪The protocol stack for WSNs has
the five routing layers and
management planes

▪Network layers ▪Management planes

▪Application ▪Power
▪Transport ▪Mobility
▪Network ▪Task
▪Data link ▪Topology
▪Physical ▪Synchronization
▪Localization

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 36

LAYERS
Noisy
Physical layer Link layer
▪Provide a simple and robust ▪Mange channels
modulation ▪Manages access to the medium
▪Transmission (MAC)
▪Minimize the collision
▪Receiving techniques
▪Data frame detection
▪Frequency selection
▪Ensure reliable communication
▪Carrier frequency generation point-to-point and point-to-
multipoint connections
▪Signal detection ▪ Error control techniques

▪Modulation ▪Multiplexing

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 37

LAYERS
Network layer
▪Routing data supplied by the ▪Due to the large number of
transport layer nodes in a WSN, unique IDs
▪Sink located far from the for each node may not be
sensor field provided and
▪How to deliver the packet? ▪the nodes may need to be
▪Power efficiency is always addressed based on their
an important consideration data or location.
▪Sensor networks are mostly ▪Can connect to the internet or
data-centric other network
▪Relay nodes can
aggregate the data from
multiple neighbors through
local processing
ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 38
LAYERS
Transport layer Application Layer
▪Mainly used when the node is ▪Many different types of
required to be accessed from applications can be build and
▪ the internet used
▪ external network
▪Depends on the sensing tasks
▪Mainly unreliable protocol used
▪Contains
▪Tradeoff between ▪ Main application
▪ Need for ▪ Management tasks
▪ Congestion control ▪ Query processing
▪ Reliability ▪ Network management
▪ Limitations ▪ Formation
▪ Topology control
▪Solutions
▪ Localized reliability ▪Other Considerations
▪ The sink take care of congestion control ▪ Local clock and synchronization
▪ Sensing value and location

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 39

MANAGEMENT PLANES
All Management planes are needed so that sensor nodes can work
together in a power-efficient way, route data in a mobile sensor
network, and share resources between sensor nodes

▪The power management plane

▪ Manages how a sensor node uses its power
▪ Example: change the radio module status to “sleep”
▪ The node informs its neighbors that it has a low power
▪ Remove the node from routing packets path
▪ Remain sensing and updating until it dies

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 40

MANAGEMENT PLANES
▪Mobility management plane
▪ Mobility of
▪ Node
▪ Sink
▪ Event Ambient noise level using mobile phones

▪ Detects and registers the movement of sensor nodes

▪ Know its neighbors and keep tracking them
▪ Take future transmission decisions according to those location

▪Task management plane

▪ Balances and schedules the sensing tasks given to a specific region
▪ Each node knows its tasks
▪ Need to sense or not
▪ Need to send a report or not
ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 41
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
▪Type of service of WSN
▪ Not simply moving bits like, for example, the Internet
▪ Rather: provide answers (not just numbers)
▪ Issues like geographic scoping are natural requirements, absent from other networks

▪Quality of service (QoS)

▪ QoS metric for the Internet is typically delay, throughput etc.
▪ The QoS metrics for sensor networks can be application specific
▪ What is the probability that the network misses detecting a tank?

▪Fault tolerance
▪ Be robust against node failure (running out of energy, physical destruction, …)

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 42

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

▪Lifetime
▪The network should fulfill its task as long as possible
▪A node whose battery is drained and has no other form of power will not operate any more
▪Prolong the lifetime of the network

▪Scalability
▪Support large number of nodes
▪Dramatic change in network size against the network performance

▪Wide range of densities

▪Vast or small number of nodes per unit area
▪Application-dependent

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 43

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

▪Programmability
▪Re-programming of nodes in the field might be necessary
▪Improve flexibility

▪Maintainability
▪WSN has to adapt to changes, self-monitoring, adapt operation
▪Incorporate possible additional resources, e.g., newly deployed
nodes

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 44

KEY MECHANISMS FOR WSN

▪Multi-hop wireless communication

▪Energy-efficient operation
▪For communication, computation, sensing, NS actuating

▪Auto-configuration
▪Manual configuration just not an option

▪Collaboration
▪Nodes in the network collaborate towards a joint goal

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 45

SINGLE-HOP VS MULTIHOP

▪Refers to the number of wireless hops required to reach

the edge of the wired network
▪Examples of single-hop networks
▪ Cellular networks
▪ Wireless LAN

▪Route of the packet from Smartphone to the Internet

▪ Smartphone -- (over wireless link) --> Wireless access point (AP) interface
▪ AP interface to Ethernet interface
▪ To Ethernet switch …

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 46

SINGLE-HOP VS MULTIHOP

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 47

SINGLE-HOP VS MULTIHOP
▪One common problem: limited range of wireless communication
▪ Essentially due to limited transmission power, path loss, obstacles

▪Obstacles in the way

▪Option: multi-hop networks
▪ Send packets to an intermediate node
▪ Intermediate node forwards packet to its destination
▪ Intermediate nodes act as routers
▪ Store-and-forward multi-hop network

Sink
Source Obstacle
ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 48
SINGLE-HOP VS MULTIHOP
Example of multi-hop forwarding
▪Node A sends a data packet to Node B over wireless
▪Node B, after receiving the packet from Node A, retransmits the packet to Node C
wirelessly
▪Node C, after receiving the packet from Node B, retransmits the packet to Gateway
Node wirelessly 3 wireless hops to the wired net
A
C

B
Internet Remote
users
Gateway
node

Wireless sensor network

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 49
DISTRIBUTED ORGANIZATION

▪Participants in a WSN should cooperate in organizing the

network
▪Centralized approaches are usually not feasible
▪ Affects scalability, robustness
▪Limited resources means
▪ Each node performs a part of the task
▪Examples of distributed cooperation:
▪ Tracking of vehicle requires multiple sensor working together
▪ The work of a faulty sensor can be done by the surrounding sensors working
cooperatively
▪ Finding a good route cooperatively

ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 50

RESOURCES

▪Introduction to Wireless and Mobile Systems, D. Agrawal & Q Zeng

▪Ad Hoc Wireless Networks: Architectures and Protocols, C. Murthy
and B. Manoj
▪Fundamentals of Wireless Sensor Networks: Theory and Practice, W.
Dargie and C. Poellabauer
▪Protocols and Architectures for Wireless Sensor Networks, H. Karl and
A. Willing
▪Comparative Analysis of Network Protocols for Wireless Sensor
Networks, M. Almeer
▪Previous ITCE 419 slides by Dr. Nedal Ababneh
ITCE 419 – NODE AND NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 51