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Bluetooth Based Smart Sensor Networks

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ABSTRACT

“Dragging the world towards wireless galaxy”

Various sensors are already in a broad use today as part of

different devices or as standalone devices connected to a network

usually to monitor industrial processes, equipments or installations.

The advancements in technology, wireless communications have

enhanced development of small, low power and low cost devices. Such

devices when organized into a network, present a powerful platform

that can be used in many interesting applications.

Bluetooth is a low cost, short-range, wireless technology with

small footprint, low power consumption and reasonable throughput.

Bluetooth wireless technology has become global technology

specification for “always on” wireless communication not just as a

point-to-point but was a network technology as well.

The kernel of this paper, deals about an implementation of

bluetooth based sensor networks.

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Introduction

The communications capability of devices and continuous transparent

information routes are indispensable components of future oriented automation

concepts. Communication is increasing rapidly in industrial environment even at

field level.

In any industry the process can be realized through sensors and can be

controlled through actuators. The process is monitored on the central control room

by getting signals through a pair of wires from each field device in Distributed

Control Systems (DCS). With advent in networking concept, the cost of wiring is

saved by networking the field devices. But the latest trend is elimination of wires

i.e., wireless networks.

Wireless sensor networks - networks of small devices equipped with

sensors, microprocessor and wireless communication interfaces.

In 1994, Ericsson Mobile communications, the global telecommunication

company based in Sweden, initiated a study to investigate, the feasibility of a low

power, low cost ratio interface, and to find a way to eliminate cables between

devices. Finally, the engineers at the Ericsson named the new wireless technology

as “Blue tooth” to honour the 10th century king if Denmark, Harald Blue tooth

(940 to 985 A.D).

The goals of blue tooth are unification and harmony as well, specifically

enabling different devices to communicate through a commonly accepted standard

for wire less connectivity.

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Blue Tooth

Blue tooth operates in the unlicensed ISM band at 2.4 GHZ frequency band

and use frequency hopping spread spectrum technique. A typical Blue tooth device

has a range of about 10 meters and can be extended to 100meters. Communication

channels supports total bandwidth of 1 Mb / sec. A single connection supports a

maximum asymmetric data transfer rate of 721 KBPS maximum of three channels.

BLUE TOOTH – NETWORKS

In bluetooth, a Piconet is a collection of up to 8 devices that frequency hop

together. Each Piconet has one master usually a device that initiated establishment

of the Piconet, and up to 7 slave devices. Master’s Blue tooth address is used for

definition of the frequency hopping sequence. Slave devices use the master’s clock

to synchronize their clocks to be able to hop simultaneously.

A Piconet

MASTER
SLAVE 3 SLAVE 1

SLAVE 2

MASTER ACTIVE SLAVE STANDBY

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When a device wants to establish a Piconet it has to perform inquiry to

discover other Blue tooth devices in the range. Inquiry procedure is defined in such

a way to ensure that two devices will after some time, visit the same frequency

same time when that happens, required information is exchanged and devices can

use paging procedure to establish connection.

When more than 7 devices needs to communicate, there are two options.

The first one is to put one or more devices into the park state. Blue tooth defines

three low power modes sniff, hold and park. When a device is in the park mode

then it disassociates from and Piconet, but still maintains timing synchronization

with it. The master of the Piconet periodically broadcasts beacons (Warning) to

invite the slave to rejoin the Piconet or to allow the slave to request to rejoin. The

slave can rejoin the Piconet only if there are less than seven slaves already in the

Piconet. If not so, the master has to ‘park’ one of the active slaves first. All these

actions cause delay and for some applications it can be unacceptable for eg:

process control applications, that requires immediate response from the command

centre (central control room).

Scatternet consists of several Piconets connected by devices participating in

multiple Piconet. These devices can be slaves in all Piconets or master in one

Piconet and slave in other Piconets. Using scatternets higher throughput is

available and multi-hop connections between devices in different Piconets are

possible. i.e., The unit can communicate in one Piconet at time so they jump from

pioneer to another depending upon the channel parameter.

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A Scatternet

 MASTER

ACTIVE
 SLAVE
PARKED
SLAVE

 STANDBY


BLUE TOOTH BASED SENSOR NETWORK

The main challenge in front of Blue tooth developers now is to prove
interoperability between different manufactures’ devices and to provide numerous
interesting applications. One of such applications is wireless sensor networks.
Wireless sensor networks comprise number of small devices equipped with
a sensing unit, microprocessors, and wireless communication interface and power
source.
1. An important feature of wireless sensor networks is collaboration of
network nodes during the task execution.
2. Another specific characteristics of wireless sensor network is Data-centric
nature.
As deployment of smart sensor nodes is not planned in advance and positions
of nodes in the field are not determined, it could happen that some sensor nodes
end in such positions that they either cannot perform required measurement or the
error probability is high. For that a redundant number of smart nodes is deployed
in this field. These nodes then communicate, collaborate and share data, thus
ensuring better results.
Smart sensor nodes scattered in the field, collect data and send it to users via
“gateway” using multiple hop routes.
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A Wireless sensor network

sensor network
Short Public
range Gate way network
wireless logic interface
interface

Internet

Users
The main functions of a gateway are
 Communication with sensor Networks
 Shortage wireless communication is used.
 It provides functions like discovery of smart sensor nodes, generic
methods of sending and receiving data to and from sensors, routing .
 Gateway logic
 It controls gateway interfaces and data flow to and from sensor
network.
 It provides an abstraction level that describes the existing sensors
and their characteristics.
 It provides functions for uniform access to sensors regardless of
their type, location or N/W topology, inject queries and tasks and
collect replies.

 Communication With Users

 Gateway communications with users or other sensor networks over
the Internet, WAN, Satellite or some shortage communication
technology.
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From the user point of view, quering and tasking are two main services
provided by wireless sensor networks. Queries are used when user requires only
the current value of the observed phenomenon. Tasking is a more complex
operation and is used when a phenomenon has to be observed over a large period
of time.Both queries and tasks of time to the network by the gateway which also
collects replies and forwards them to users.

SENSOR NETWORK IMPLEMENTATION

The main goal of our implementation was to build a hardware platform and
generic software solutions that can serve as the basis and a test bed for the research
of wireless sensor network protocols.

Implemented sensor network consists of several smart sensor nodes and a

gateway. Each smart node can have several sensors and is equipped with a micro-
controller and a bluetooth radio module.

Gate way and smart nodes are members of the Piconet and hence maximum
seven smart nodes can exist simultaneously in the network.
For example, a pressure sensor is implemented, as bluetooth node in a
following way.

The sensor is connected to the bluetooth node and consists of the pressure
sensing element, smart signal-conditioning circuitry including calibration and
temperature compensation, and the Transducer Electronic Data Sheet (TEDS).
These features are built directly into the sensor microcontroller used for node
communication control plus memory for TEDS configuration information.

Smart Sensor Node Architecture

The architecture shown in figure can easily be developed for specific sensor
configurations such as thermocouples, strain gauges, and other sensor technologies
and can include sensor signal conditioning as well as communications functions.
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A Bluetooth wireless smart pressure sensor node

Conditioned along sensor signal is digitized and digital data is then processed
using stored TEDS data. The pressure sensor node collects data from multiple
sensors and transmits the data via bluetooth wireless communications in the
2.4 GHZ base band to a network hub or other internet appliance such as a
computer.
The node can supply excitation to each sensor, or external sensor power can
be supplied. Up to eight channels are available on each node for analog inputs as
well as digital output. The sensor signal is digitized with 16-bit A/D resolution for
transmission along with the TEDS for each sensor. This allows each channel to
identify itself to the host system. The node can operate from either an external
power supply or an attached battery. The maximum transmission distance is 10
meters with an optional capability to 100 meters.
The IEEE 1451 family of standards are used for definition of functional
boundaries and interfaces that are necessary to enable smart transducer to be easily
connected to a variety of networks. The standards define the protocol and functions
that give the transducer interchangeability in networked system, with this
information a host microcomputer recognized a pressure sensor, a temperature
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sensor, or another sensor type along with the measurement range and scaling
information based on the information contained in the TEDS data.
With blue tooth technology, small transceiver modules can be built into a
wide range of products including sensor systems, allowing fast and secure
transmission of data within a given radius (Usually up to 10m).
A blue tooth module consists primarily of three functional blocks – an
analog 2.4 GHz., Blue tooth RF transceiver unit, and a support unit for link
management and host controller interface functions.
The host controller has a hardware digital signal processing part- the Link
Controller (LC), a CPU core, and it interfaces to the host environment. The link
controller consists of hardware and software parts that perform blue tooth based
band processing, and physical layer protocols. The link controller performs low-
level digital-signal processing to establish connections, assemble or disassemble,
packets, control frequency hopping, correct errors and encrypt data.

Bluetooth module Hardware Architecture

The CPU core allows the blue tooth module to handle inquiries and filter
page request without involving the host device. The host controller can be
programmed to answer certain page messages and authenticate remote links. The
link manager(LM) software runs on the CPU core. The LM discovers other remote
LMs and communicates with them via the link manager protocol (LMP) to perform
its service provider role using the services of the underlying LC. The link manager
is a software function that uses the services of the link controller to perform link
setup, authentication, link configuration, and other protocols. Depending on the
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implementation, the link controller and link manager functions may not reside in
the same processor.
Another function component is of course, the antenna, which may be
integrated on the PCB or come as a standalone item. A fully implemented blue
tooth module also incorporates higher-level software protocols, which govern the
functionality and interoperability with other modules.
Gate way plays the role of the Piconet’s master in the sensor network. It
controls establishments of the network, gathers information about the existing
smart sensor nodes and sensor attached to them and provides access to them.
Discovery Of The Smart Sensor Nodes
Smart sensor node discovery is the first procedure that is executed upon the
gateway installation. It goals to discover all sensor nodes in the area and to build a
list of sensor’s characteristics and network topology. Afterwards, it is executed
periodically to facilitate addition of new or removal of the existing sensors. The
following algorithm is proposed.
When the gateway is initialized, it performs bluetooth inquiry procedure.
When the blue tooth device is discovered, the major and minor device classes are
checked. These parameters are set by each smart node to define type of the device
and type of the attached sensors. Service class field can be used to give some
additional description of offered services. if discovered device is not smart node it
is discarded. Otherwise service database of the discovered smart node is searched
for sensor services. As currently there is no specific sensor profile, then database is
searched for the serial port profile connection parameters. Once connection strings
is obtained from the device. Blue tooth link is established and data exchange with
smart mode can start.
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CONCLUSION

Blue tooth represents a great chance for sensor-networked architecture.

This architecture heralds wireless future for home and also for industrial
implementation. With a blue tooth RF link, users only need to bring the devices
with in range, and the devices will automatically link up and exchange
information.
Thus implementation of blue tooth technology for sensor networks not only
cuts wiring cost but also integrates the industrial environment to smarter
environment.
Today, with a broader specifications and a renewed concentration on
interoperability, manufacturers are ready to forge ahead and take blue tooth
products to the market place. Embedded design can incorporate the blue tooth
wireless technology into a range of new products to meet the growing demand for
connected information appliances.

FUTURE TASKS

 Future work is aimed to develop and design a blue tooth-enabled data

concentrator for data acquisition and analysis.

REFERENCES

 G.I.Pottie, W.J.Kaiser “Wireless Integrated network sensors”,

Communications of the ACM, May 2002.
 C.Shen, C.Srisathapomphat “sensor networking architecture and
application”, IEEC personal communication. Aug,2001.
 C.Chellappan, RTCBPA, June 2003.
 Pappa,Transducer networks, RTCBPA, June 2003.