A Plug-n-Play wireless sensor network based on Web service for monitoring climatic parameters

Abstract

Several applications require for a distributed measurement system able to measure the same or different parameters at different points in a wide area. Distributed systems based on smart sensors represent the best solution to many different measurement problems, even if smart sensors provided from different factory are not always compatibility. In fact, the adoption of different communication protocol and the closed management software force the developer to create distributed systems using only smart sensors provided by the same factory. So, it is important to create distributed system accessible using a standard technology. In this paper the authors present an implementation of a Plug-n-Play wireless sensor network based on Web service and adopting open source software and low cost hardware architecture. The sensor network is presented a framework of hierarchical distributed system for metrological application of monitoring. Measurement results are made available as Web services so that all users can build up their own application and access to the sensor present in the network. The particular metrological application chosen to show some preliminary results of distributed monitoring network is the monitoring of climatic parameters. This solution offers great possibility in terms of fast and easy access to measured data, of integration of large complex Web sensor network, of realization of flexible custom applications and of service reusability developing new measurement application starting with different information also coming from different sensors. A proper synchronization protocol has been adopted in order to synchronize to different hardware sections of the sensor performing measurement.