Probabilistic Assessment of High-Throughput Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Structural health monitoring (SHM) using wireless smart sensors (WSS) has the potential to provide rich information on the state of a structure. However, because of their distributed nature, maintaining highly robust and reliable networks can be challenging. Assessing WSS network communication quality before and after finalizing a deployment is critical to achieve a successful WSS network for SHM purposes. Early studies on WSS network reliability mostly used temporal signal indicators, composed of a smaller number of packets, to assess the network reliability. However, because the WSS networks for SHM purpose often require high data throughput, i.e., a larger number of packets are delivered within the communication, such an approach is not sufficient. Instead, in this study, a model that can assess, probabilistically, the long-term performance of the network is proposed. The proposed model is based on readily-available measured data sets that represent communication quality during high-throughput data transfer. Then, an empirical limit-state function is determined, which is further used to estimate the probability of network communication failure. Monte Carlo simulation is adopted in this paper and applied to a small and a full-bridge wireless networks. By performing the proposed analysis in complex sensor networks, an optimized sensor topology can be achieved.

Wireless sensor network for structural health monitoring: A contemporary review of technologies, challenges, and future direction

“…Therefore, it is essential to ensure a reliable data transmission for high-throughput data applications. 46,57,128…”

“…Applications of WSNs for SHM concerning requirements of throughput can be categorized into two types: low- and high-throughput applications. 128 As for the category of low-throughput applications, the data may be consisted of many packets. As a result, it can be streamed in an easy manner as it is produced for taking the small amount of data as single data samples (average data).…”

“…Regarding this limitation, several studies 17,57,94,128,129 discussed WSNs data rate and throughput limitations, and their effects on achieving the requirements of SHM.…”

“…As evaluating WSN communication performance before and after performing a deployment is critical to obtain a successful WSN-based SHM systems, Kim et al 128 suggested a model for WSNs having the ability to measure high-throughput data for long-term monitoring. Such a suggested model depended on readily available collected data sets, which represented communication performance during high-throughput data transmission.…”

A Delay-Aware and Reliable Data Aggregation for Cyber-Physical Sensing

“…Meanwhile, in wireless communication, due to the complexity of the transmission channel and the harsh environment, reliable communications are essential for most WSNs applications because of the unreliable links [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Although many applications require that each data packet be successfully delivered to sink with statistical probability < 1, such as 60%–95%, some reports reveal that the wireless link packet loss rate may be up to 70% in real WSNs, which is far from being satisfactory [ 11 , 12 , 13 ].…”