Two-Layered Wireless Sensor Networks for Warehouses and Supermarkets

The rapid development of wireless sensor network and RFID technologies offers a wide range of novel applications and services. In this paper, we present a two-layered wireless network for warehouses and supermarkets to monitor goods storage and sale, and assist for quality management and market analysis. The hierarchical architecture uses IEEE 802.15.4a impulse ultra-wideband radio (IR-UWB) communication protocol between slave sensor nodes and master sensor nodes, and IEEE 802.11b/g between master sensor nodes and server. The performance of our proposal is evaluated based on the widely used OMNeT++ simulation environment. Simulation results are presented and discussed according to different sampling rates and traffic loads for specific scenarios requirements.