Design of Simulator Test Interfaces for Wireless Sensor Networks

Hunter Dawson Yaple; Ramakrishnan Sundaram; Charles julius Maier

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Conference: 2024 ASEE North Central Section Conference
Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan
Publication Date: March 22, 2024
Start Date: March 22, 2024
End Date: March 23, 2024
Page Count: 12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--45606
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/45606
Download Count: 20

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Dr. Sundaram is a Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Gannon University. His areas of research include computational architectures for signal and image processing as well as novel methods to improve/enhance engineering educa

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Charles julius Maier Gannon University

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Abstract

This paper describes the setup of the interface between the physical nodes of the wireless sensor network and the virtual sensors in the simulation environment. The wireless sensor network comprises WiFi modules, configured in a grid, to transmit and receive radio frequency signal data. The interface between the actual network and the simulator enables the signal data from the actual wireless sensor network to be assigned to virtual sensor nodes in the simulation environment. In this manner, the actual network is replicated on the simulator. The creation of the virtual sensor network facilitates the virtual modeling of the actual sensor grid. Test interfaces are designed to compare actual and virtual network performance. CupCarbon is the wireless sensor network design and simulation tool used to interface with the WiFi modules used in the actual wireless sensor network. In addition to displaying key information from the actual network, one of the functions of the virtual sensor network is to compute the change in the received signal strength at each node. The grid configuration, both actual and simulated, yields received signal strengths arranged as a matrix of values from each transmitter to each receiver. Each matrix constitutes a frame with a specific time stamp. The change in the received signal strengths at each receiver of the network is observed in the actual network and processed in the virtual environment. The change, which can be an attenuation or an accentuation from frame to frame, is used to detect the obstruction within the network by solving the inverse problem. One of the virtual models assigns binary weights to the cells in the space occupied by the grid and solves for the shade of gray to be assigned to each cell. Regularization is included to offset the non-invertible nature of the weight matrix. This is achieved by adding a regularization term such as the matrix approximation of derivatives in each dimension based on the difference operator. This operation yields a smooth least-squares solution for the measured data by suppressing the high energy or noise terms in the derivative of the image. As the obstruction passes through the real sensor network, the virtual sensor network determines the location and shape of the obstruction. The platform is being developed to test and model wireless sensor network grids at different geometric scales and with distinct spatial topologies.

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Format

Yaple, H. D., & Sundaram, R., & Maier, C. J. (2024, March), Design of Simulator Test Interfaces for Wireless Sensor Networks Paper presented at 2024 ASEE North Central Section Conference, Kalamazoo, Michigan. 10.18260/1-2--45606

TY - CPAPER
AB - This paper describes the setup of the interface between the physical nodes of the wireless sensor network and the virtual sensors in the simulation environment. The wireless sensor network comprises WiFi modules, configured in a grid, to transmit and receive radio frequency signal data. The interface between the actual network and the simulator enables the signal data from the actual wireless sensor network to be assigned to virtual sensor nodes in the simulation environment. In this manner, the actual network is replicated on the simulator. The creation of the virtual sensor network facilitates the virtual modeling of the actual sensor grid. Test interfaces are designed to compare actual and virtual network performance. CupCarbon is the wireless sensor network design and simulation tool used to interface with the WiFi modules used in the actual wireless sensor network. In addition to displaying key information from the actual network, one of the functions of the virtual sensor network is to compute the change in the received signal strength at each node. The grid configuration, both actual and simulated, yields received signal strengths arranged as a matrix of values from each transmitter to each receiver. Each matrix constitutes a frame with a specific time stamp. The change in the received signal strengths at each receiver of the network is observed in the actual network and processed in the virtual environment. The change, which can be an attenuation or an accentuation from frame to frame, is used to detect the obstruction within the network by solving the inverse problem. One of the virtual models assigns binary weights to the cells in the space occupied by the grid and solves for the shade of gray to be assigned to each cell. Regularization is included to offset the non-invertible nature of the weight matrix. This is achieved by adding a regularization term such as the matrix approximation of derivatives in each dimension based on the difference operator. This operation yields a smooth least-squares solution for the measured data by suppressing the high energy or noise terms in the derivative of the image. As the obstruction passes through the real sensor network, the virtual sensor network determines the location and shape of the obstruction. The platform is being developed to test and model wireless sensor network grids at different geometric scales and with distinct spatial topologies.
AU - Hunter Dawson Yaple
AU - Ramakrishnan Sundaram
AU - Charles julius Maier
CY - Kalamazoo, Michigan
DA - 2024/03/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Design of Simulator Test Interfaces for Wireless Sensor Networks
UR - https://peer.asee.org/45606
DO - 10.18260/1-2--45606
ER -