Back to homepage utwente.nl
Low Power Transceiver Design for Wireless Sensor Network
Description of research
Within the economic sector ‘Transport and Logistics’, there is an increasing need for intelligent networks monitoring status and transportation of goods. To realize this, the use of ‘sensor networks’ has been proposed: sensor nodes are attached to products, pallets and/or containers, monitoring environmental conditions (e.g. temperature, humidity) and location. The sensor nodes form a mesh network through which a single node can send information to a central facility. No human operator is actively involved in tracking the flow of goods.
The network should extract energy for processing and communication from its environment (energy harvesting where no battery replacements are needed). This limits the power budget for a complete sensor node to about 100 μW, whereas typically sensor nodes currently consume significantly more than 1 mW. Further sensor nodes have reliable radio communication platform which is the most power hungry block in the sensor node.
To address these challenging requirements, in this project we do cross-layer research from application down to physical layer to explore and optimally combine solutions at different hierarchical levels. To achieve the tough energy consumption and robustness requirements from the sensor node first and foremost an ultra low power radio communication platform is required. Furthermore, the sensors need to be reliable low cost, highly integrable and highly scalable. With those aims, our research focuses on the following topics:
1. |
Low power robust modulation techniques. |
2. |
Ultra low power radio transmitters and receivers. |
3. |
Techniques to synchronize the on/off duty cycles of transmitters and receivers within the network |
4. |
Analog/digital co-design to optimally trade-off analog and digital processing. |
5. |
Implementation of a power-aware MAC layer platform. |
Advisor(s)
Nauta, prof. dr. ir. B. (head)
Duration
March 2009 to February 2013
Project
Real Time Enterprise Sensor Networks for Transport and Logistics compatible with Energy Harvesting Dependable Systems and Networks
Funding institution
Centre for Telematics and Information Technology (CTIT).
Strategic Research Orientation
WiSe - Wireless and Sensor Systems
Links to relevant web pages:
Other PhD Students in the Project: |
· |
· |
Associated Groups:
Integrated Circuit Design (ICD)
Computer Architectures for Embedded Systems
Pictures
