Abstract

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applicationsrequire reliable and efficient wireless communication. Assumingdense Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) operating in a harshenvironment, a concept of a Time Division Multiple Access(TDMA) based WSN enriched with Electronically SteerableParasitic Array Radiator (ESPAR) antennas is proposed andexamined in this work. The utilized antenna provides oneomnidirectional and 12 directional radiation patterns that can beelectronically switched by the sensor node. We introduce a relaydiscovery algorithm which selects those sensor nodes with anESPAR antenna capable to act as relay. The selection of the relaynodes is based on a certain link quality threshold that algorithmuses as input. The outcome is a reduction in number of layers orhops with a guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS). To emphasizethe physical aspect of the wireless propagation, we introduce themeasured antenna radiation patterns and consider two differentpath loss propagation models representing blockage-free andblockage-prone industrial environments. A number of networksimulations were performed and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) as alink quality measure was examined with respect to the networkdensity and different measured radiation pattern settings. Themain outcomes show a trade-off between SNR per link and thepercentage of nodes that can serve as relays. As a result, wepropose network design guidelines that take under considerationthe QoS range with respect to SNR together with an optimalnumber of antenna radiation patterns that should be selected asa trade-off between latency, energy consumption and reliabilityin a network

Citations

Authors (5)