2014 International Conference on Circuit, Power and Computing Technologies [ICCPCT]

Wireless Sensor Network Communication Terminal

Based on Embedded Linux and Xbee
Mr. Sudhir G. Nikhade Dr. Mrs. A. A. Agashe
PG Student, Associate Professor,
Walchand College of Engineering, Walchand College of Engineering,
Electronics Department, Electronics Department
Sangli, Maharashtra, India. Sangli, Maharashtra, India.
sudhirnikhade@gmail.com amrita.agashe@walchandsangli.ac.in

Abstract-In this paper, raspberry Pi iss used as an which is embedded on the raspberry pi Linux board. We
embedded Linux board which is used as a communication propose a design scheme abou ut wireless sensor network
terminal in wireless sensor network. Raspberryy pi uses ARM communication terminal based on embedded technology.
11 system structure of the microcontroller in n which Linux This raspberry pi is used to connect each sensor node and can
operating system can install in it. The embeddeed Linux board guarantee information processin ng efficiency, timely and
connects the entire sensor node via zigbee p protocol in the accuracy. Users can view the collected data onto raspberry pi
wireless sensor network and collects sensors data from the through graphical user interface (G
GUI) at the client side.
sensors. This board continuously collects all thee real time data
from different sensor nodes a save in the rasp pberry pi board II. THE SYSTEM’S OVER
RALL ARCHITECTURE
which can be accessed remotely on more thaan one client’s
computer. Thus we design the application whicch can group a
large number of data based on the embedded d Linux system
platform. It could reduce the power consumption of the
wireless sensor node; meanwhile, it improves th he quantities of
data processing ability and strengthens the datta transmission
speed.

Keywords- Embedded Linux; Wireless Seensor Network;

Raspberry Pi; Zigbee.

I. INTRODUCTION
Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are a wiireless network
made up of thousands of smart sensor nodess. These smart
sensors constitute a network topology through self
organization, network nodes, the data that cann transmit their
own sensor, can also pass the data of adjaceent nodes. The
entire topology of the network is flexible and variable, when
some nodes join in or leave out of the netwoork, the whole
network topology can automatically change, aand the changes
of the status of a single node will not affect thee safe operation
of the entire network [1][2]. ZigBee is the prootocol which is
specifically designed for wireless sensor neetwork; it is a
simple, efficient, reliable, low-power standaard of wireless
technology. So, wireless sensor network with zzigbee protocol
have broad application prospect. It can bee used in the
precision agriculture, security purpose, industrries, home, and
environment monitoring [3]. So, it is considereed as one of the
top most advanced technology which will chaange the world
in the future.
Sensor nodes can collect and transmit thhe data. In the
sensor network, because the nodes are distribuuted intensively
and need to deal with the large amounts of datta, however the
node itself is not suitable for it, so communiccation terminal
between the nodes has the extremely vital siggnificance. We
use the ARMv11 system structure of the miccrocontroller to Fig. 1. The system Overall Structure

978-1-4799-2397-7/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE

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The raspberry pi manages multiple senssor nodes, and • Two USB

client also interacts with the raspberry pi. Thee whole system
structure is shown in figure 1 [4]. The whole system • HDMI
composes as follows: • LINUX OS
1) Raspberry Pi: - Collecting the perceivved information • ARM 11 processor @700M
MHz
send by sensor nodes, and processing large quuantities of data
timely, and it is available for users to view andd store into it; it • BCM2835 SoC based chip
pset.
is the core of the core of the whole system. Itt can be access • SD card slot
by the users remotely from anywhere.
2) The sensor node: - Many sensor nodess including the nal SD card.
The raspberry pi is boot by extern
temperature sensor, humidity sensors, photosennsitive sensors, • Download raspbian wheezzy image.
acoustic sensors and gas sensor etc. they aree composed by
perception part and wireless transmission moduules, which are • Burn 4GB (minimum) SD D card with that image using
primarily responsible for information ccollection and win32 disk imager softwware which is a utility in
distribution. windows machine to burn SD card.
3) Zigbee: - Zigbee protocol for wireless ssensor network • Insert this SD card into raspberry pi SD card slot and
which is based on the underlying protocol IEEE 802.15.4, boot raspberry pi.
which defines the network’s physical layer aand controlling
layer for media access, while zigbee protoccol defines the A. Interfacing HDMI screen to ra aspberry pi
network layer, application layer and specifiications of the Raspberry pi has one HDM MI and s-video slot. So,
network security services[5]. raspberry pi has to start on HDM MI screen first time for its
4) The Client: - User can access the raspbberry remotely setting, such as its internet settin
ng and setting its graphical
from anywhere and can monitor the data coollected in the user interface (GUI) to the clientt’s computer. On first boot
raspberry pi. More than one client or user ccan access the we will come to the raspi-config window.
w
raspberry pi at a time.

III. INTRODUCTION OF RASPBERR

RY PI

Fig. 3. The Raspi-config window.

• Change settings such as timezone

t and locale if you
Fig. 2. Raspberry Pi want.
• Finally, select the second
d choice: expand_rootfs and
The raspberry pi is a low cost credit size coomputer which
say ‘yes’ to a reboot.
has recently become very popular. The raspbberry pi is the
cheapest ARM11 powered Linux capable single board • The Raspberry Pi will reboot and we will see
computer board. This board runs an ARM11 m microcontroller raspberry pi login:
@700MHz and comes with a 512 Mega B Bytes of RAM
memory. Figure 2 shows the picture of thhe raspberry pi • Type: pi
board [6] [7]. Here are the features of the boardd, • We will be asked for your Password
• 512MB SDRAM • Type: raspberry
• Ethernet • You will then see the prom
mpt: pi@raspberry ~ $

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• Start the desktop by typing: startx B. Hardware interface between raspberry

r Pi and xbee
module
For internet connection we have to edit ‘resolve.conf’ file
and change the name server. For remote accesssing raspberry
pi’s GUI from other client’s computer,, first install
tightvncserver on raspberry pi by typing coommand “sudo
apt-get install tightvncservser”. And also install tightvnc
viewer at the client machine to view raspberrry pi GUI. We
can access raspberry pi remotely by just typingg its IP address
on putty terminal shown in figure 4 below whhich is software
utility on windows machine and in linux macchine it can be
access by command “ssh@raspberry pi IP addrress”. Figure 5
shows raspberry pi’s desktop graphical user intterface.

Fig. 6. Connection between Raspberry Pi and Xbee Module

Figure 6 shows connection between raspberry pi and

coordinator xbee module through UART. For this connection
we have to turning off UART fun nctioning as a serial console.
The raspberry pi’s serial port is configured to be used for
serial console input/output. Whilee this is useful if we want to
Fig. 4. Putty Termainl login using the serial port, it meanns we can’t use serial port in
our programs. To use the serial port p to connect and talk to
other devices like xbee, the seriall port console login must be
disabled. To enable the serial po ort for our use we need to
disable login on the port. There area two files that need to be
edited.
1./etc/inittab.
2./boot/cmdline.txt.
Before editing that files first take its back up by commands
1. sudo cp /etc/inittab /etc/inittab.bak
2. sudo cp /boot/cmdline.txt /boott/cmdline.txt.bak .
The first file has the command d to enable the login prompt
and this need to be disabled. Edit the file by command “sudo
nano /etc/inittab’’ and then we seee a line similar to “TO: 23:
respawn:/sbin/getty –L ttyAMA0 0 115200 vt100”. Disable it
by adding # character to the beeginning and save the file.
“#TO: 23: respawn:/sbin/getty –L L ttyAMA0 115200 vt100”.
When the raspberry pi boots up, all the boot up information
is sent to the serial port. This is an optional whether it
disabled or not. Sometimes it is useful to see what is
happening at bootup. If we haave decided to connect at
bootup, it will receive the informaation over the serial port, so
it is up to us to decide whether thiis should be disabled or not.
We can disable it by editing 2n nd file by command “sudo
Fig. 5. Raspberry Pi Gui nano /boot/cmdline.txt”. The file contents will look like this

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“dwcotg.lpmenable=0console=ttyAMA0,115200kgdboc=tty Figure 9 shows interfacing betw

ween sensor node and xbee
AMA0,115200console=tty1root=/dev/mmcblkk0p2rootfstype router module.
=ext4elevator=deadline rootwait”. Remove alll the reference
to ttyAMA0 (the name of the serial port). The file will now
look like this “dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=tty1
root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline
rootwait”. After editing these file, reboots thhe raspberry pi
machine. Minicom program is used to test tthe serial port.
This program is installed onto the raspberry ppi by command
“sudo apt-get install minicom”. From client computer, first
access the raspberry pi using a putty terminaal on windows
machine and ssh command on Linux machhine. Set up a
connection using the serial port at 9600 baudd. Now run up
the minicom on the raspberry pi using coommand “sudo
minicom –b 9600 –o –D /dev/ttyAMA0”. Noow raspberry pi
is ready to read the sensors data by serial portt and save it to Fig. 8. Block diagram of WSN node
raspberry pi database. Figure 7 shows flowchaart of raspberry
pi data collection process [8].

outer module
Fig. 9. Interfacing sensor node to xbee ro

A. Zigbee Standard
ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 is the on nly standards-based wireless
technology which has low-cost, low-power wireless sensor
and control networks. Since zigbee can be used almost
anywhere, is easy to implement and needs little power to
operate [9].
1) XBee: XBee is a device ussed to send and receive data
wirelessly and can build up a ZigB
Bee/IEEE 802.15.4 network
reference standard. XBee functions can be divided by
network topology in differeent ways including the
coordinator, router and end dev vice. Figure 10 shows the
picture of the Xbee module seriess 2.

Fig. 7. Flowchart of Raspberry Pi Data collection Proceess

IV. HARDWARE SYSTEM DESIGN OF THE WSN NODE

We choose ARM core microcontroller AT TMEGA324PA
as main control chip of the hardware system. This chip is a
high performance, low power AVR 8 bit m microcontroller.
This chip has a 32 KB in system self programmable flash
program memory, 1KB EEPROM, 2KB internnal SRAM, two
16 bit timer, programmable watchdog timer,8 channel 10-bit
Fig. 10. Xbee Module
ADC, master/slave interface and 32 programmmable I/O lines.
The block diagram of sensor node is show wn in figure 8.

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2) Topology: For wireless network of Z ZigBee, it will 3) Serial Interface Protocolls: Xbee module supports
consist of at least two nodes including coordinnator node and both transparent and API (A Application Programming
sensor node types (Router/End device) too be able to Interface) serial interfaces.
communicate and work in PAN (Personal A Area network). a) Transparent Operation n: When operating in
Wireless sensor network topology is divided into 3 transparent mode, the modulees act as a serial line
topologies: star topology, cluster tree topoloogy, and mesh replacement. All uart data receiv ved through the DIN pin is
Topology. Our wireless sensor network uses mesh network queued up for RF transmission. When RF data is received,
topology shown in figure 11. Mesh networkinng is a type of OUT pin.
the data is sent out through the DO
network topology in which a device (node) traansmits its own b) API Operation: API op peration is an alternative to
data as well as serves as a relay for other nodees. In the event transparent operation. The frame-b based API extends the level
of a hardware failure, many routes are availabble to continue to which a host application can in nteract with the networking
the network communication process. Mesh networks are capabilities of the module. When in API mode, all data
entering and leaving the module is contained in frames that
regularly distributed networks that gennerally allow
define operations or events within n the module. By receiving
transmission only to a node’s nearest neighboors. The nodes
the request for any sensor data, th
he microcontroller will read
in these networks are generally identical, so that mesh nets
the data from different sensors and send the data to the
are also referred to as peer-to-peer nets. Figuure 12 shows raspberry pi. For data transmissiion, it has only one sensor
connection between raspberry pi and sensor noodes . node which is the coordinator with w raspberry pi for data
monitoring and recording. For F the transmission to
coordinator, sensor nodes can nnot directly contact the
coordinator; it needs to transmit data
d to sensor nodes near the
coordinator. Figure 13 shows thee flowchart of sensor node
process.

Fig. 11. Mesh Topology

Fig. 13. Flowchart of Sensor Node Process

V. CONCLUSION
This paper designs the WSN communication
c terminal for
monitoring, data collection of WSN
W node. The raspberry pi
uses one xbee module to join netwwork and provide an access
to remote network of sensor nodees. This system allows us to
use it with sensors networks im mplemented using different
hardware platforms. Comparing g with the collection and
forwarding data of the traditio onal gateway, this system
reduces the wireless sensor no odes power consumption,
Fig. 12. System overview consists of Router/End D
Device Node and improves processing ability of laarge quantities of data and
Coordinator Node. strengthens the data transmission
n speed. This paper presents

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the design of the wireless sensor network communication

based on the embedded Linux board and Xbee.
VI. REFERENCES
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[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_sensor_network.
[3] ZigBee Specification.ZigBee Alliance 2006.
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[4] Xiaohui Cheng; Fanfan Shen, "Design of the wireless sensor network
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[5] J. S. Lee, “Performance evaluation of IEEE 802.15.4 for low-rate
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[6] Powers, Shawn. "The open-source classroom: your first bite of
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[7] Sundaram, G.S.; Patibandala, B.; Santhanam, H.; Gaddam, S.; Alla,
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[8] Cholatip Yawut; Sathapath Kilaso “A Wireless Sensor Network for
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