A Wireless Sensor Network Deployment Planning Tool to Support Building Automation

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks have the advantages of low cost installation and flexibility, which make them an excellent mechanism for capturing environmental data and interacting with the physical environment for the application of building automation. However, radio propagation suffers from multi-path, shadowing and other radio interference problems in building environments. Therefore, deployment of sensor nodes in a dynamic in-building environment is a complex operation that requires expert knowledge and experience. In this paper, we present a deployment planning tool that can provide a set of useful tools for deploying a wireless sensor network in the building environment. The proposed deployment planning tool provides design tools that can assist users to develop a network infrastructure in order to support reliable communication. In addition, a network evaluation tool is provided to measure the index of network quality in order to ensure a reliable network quality. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of this tool, we designed a sensor network and simulated the network quality using this tool. The simulation results matched the experimental results of realistic deployment very well.