WaterGrid-Sense_A_LoRa-Based_Sensor_Node_for_Industrial_IoT_Applications
WaterGrid-Sense_A_LoRa-Based_Sensor_Node_for_Industrial_IoT_Applications
5, MARCH 1, 2020
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KHUTSOANE et al.: WATERGRID-SENSE: LoRa-BASED SENSOR NODE FOR INDUSTRIAL IoT APPLICATIONS 2723
into consideration when designing sensor node as they are nodes. Some of these works are discussed in the rest of this
critical to IIoT solutions [1], [2]. Moreover, a low-cost and section:
low-power sensor is ideal as most IIoT consist of monitoring Gungor and Hancke [1] explored the challenges of node
and tracking. In addition, an energy-harvesting source is a design in IIoT and some countermeasures. Some design princi-
necessity to node development. In terms of node software, ples were defined and described technical approaches to assist
authors in [6] advised on the use of various operating systems R&D when designing sensor nodes for IIoT deployments.
to ensure flexibility. In the same vein, Stoopman et al. [11] presented a system and
The recent developments in wireless communication links circuit design, of an external radio frequency (RF) powered
have given birth to low-powered networks classified as 2.4 GHz-based complementary metal oxide semiconductor
low power wide area networks (LPWANs), enabling wide (CMOS) transmitter integrated into modern autonomous wire-
area communication for low powered devices. LPWANs less sensor nodes. It uses the dedicated RF signal for energy
are characterized by low-cost devices for low-cost net- harvesting and frequency synthesis to eliminate inductors in
work deployment like IoT, low power consumption, easy to circuit design, enabling low-complexity, low power, and area
deploy network infrastructure nationwide, secure and extended efficient solution.
coverage [6], [7]. An example is the long-range low power Liu et al. [12] designed a low-power sensor node to
wireless technology platform called LoRa [6]. LoRa uses address the challenge of monitoring building temperature
LoRaWAN protocol with the aim to eliminate repeaters, reduce and light intensity for energy-efficient building design. The
device cost, increase battery life on devices, improve network sensor integrates detecting light intensity, temperature, motion
capacity, and support a large number of device connectiv- tracking, and compressive image acquisition in a single board.
ity. Currently, there are lots of developments in LPWAN Moreover, Lu et al. [13] developed the world’s smallest sensor
networks [7] and one important application is in water dis- node with ultralow power consumption and buried pump
tribution networks. interconnection technology. They explored applicable practical
This paper presents a LoRa/LoRaWAN based device known approaches for green sensor node integration with existing
as WaterGrid-Sense, which is a smart interface platform with systems and assembling them.
the ability to monitor and control in real-time, the components Paul et al. [14] designed an always-on always-off energy-
in smart networks. We evaluated the power consumption of harvesting wireless sensor node that features a near-threshold
WaterGrid-Sense while in normal operation over time and voltage IA-32 microcontroller. It is based on edge comput-
observed the performance of LoRa when the end-device is ing, having a tightly integrated sensor interface, an onboard
deployed indoors while communicating with the gateway processing unit, and onboard communication in a single
(GW) located outdoors. We carried out experiments with the board. Accordingly, Cheong et al. [15] also designed a WSN
device in terms of the power consumption and the communica- node based on ZigBee technology for ultraviolet detection
tion link and the data collected were analyzed, and presented. of flames in WSN safety applications using a spectroscopic
The performance evaluation confirms the effectiveness and the technique. In the same vein, Kan and Chen [16] designed and
impact of LoRa on energy efficiency and link reliability. implemented a small-sized wearable inertial sensor node for
The remaining parts of this paper is organized as follows: body motion analysis. To achieve the smallest node size, they
Section II presents the related works on Sensor nodes designs, printed an Inverted-F antenna and integrated it on a four-layer
Section III presents WaterGrid-Sense Node, Section IV Printed Circuit Board (PCB).
presents empirical evaluation and Section V presents data Somov et al. [17] designed a real-world wireless sensor
collection method. Lastly, we present results and analysis in node for gas sensing. To evaluate their sensor, they com-
Section VI and Section VII concludes the paper. pared it with an identical platform that uses the Wheat-
stone bridge. To reduce power consumption, a voltage divider
II. R ELATED W ORKS was used instead of a traditional Wheatstone bridge. Also,
Chen et al. [9] proposed a novel sensor node called Multi-
IIoT presents some challenges such as interference, noise, Module Separated Linear underwater sensor node to operate in
multipath fading, shadowing and so on which make the underwater WSNs. They focused on robust coverage and good
establishment of quality of service (QoS) difficult [3], [8]. communication performance. Furthermore, Imran et al. [18]
Industrial environments are hasher as a result of unpredictable investigated the use of SRAM-based Field-programmable gate
variations of temperature, pressure, humidity, and others [9]. array (FPGA) design for duty-cycled wireless vision sensor
Its nature of deployments requires sensor nodes that can handle networks. They present a low-complexity, energy efficient,
such environmental conditions. Moreover, the sensors have and reconfigurable vision sensor node using a design matrix,
to be of low-cost with certain limitations such as low rate which includes task partitioning between the server and the
and low processing power while preserving QoS [3], [10]. node addressing both processing and communication energy
Authors in [4] showed that at present, there are no full-stack consumption.
LoRa network nodes available for IoT deployment. R&D have The above discussions are some of the research works and
been using either single board computers and attaching a LoRa innovations on node design mainly for WSN. Reference [1]
module, or plug-and-sense devices that are expensive and not emphasized on node power consumption, [14] used energy
flexible for deployment. Several works have been performed harvesting techniques from external sources to power their
and some are ongoing in regards to the development of WSN nodes using solar cell while [11] harvested energy from
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2724 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 20, NO. 5, MARCH 1, 2020
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KHUTSOANE et al.: WATERGRID-SENSE: LoRa-BASED SENSOR NODE FOR INDUSTRIAL IoT APPLICATIONS 2725
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2726 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 20, NO. 5, MARCH 1, 2020
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KHUTSOANE et al.: WATERGRID-SENSE: LoRa-BASED SENSOR NODE FOR INDUSTRIAL IoT APPLICATIONS 2727
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2728 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 20, NO. 5, MARCH 1, 2020
TABLE I TABLE II
AVERAGE P OWER C ONSUMPTION AVERAGE C OMMUNICATION P ERFORMANCE
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KHUTSOANE et al.: WATERGRID-SENSE: LoRa-BASED SENSOR NODE FOR INDUSTRIAL IoT APPLICATIONS 2729
To assess the WaterGrid-Sense for deployment, we con- [18] M. Imran, K. Shahzad, N. Ahmad, M. O’Nils, N. Lawal, and
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT testing-devices/expert-key/models.html
The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Hartmut IIgner
for providing them with the measurement equipment for the Oratile Khutsoane (S’18) received the B.Sc.
lab experiment. degree in computer science and electronics,
the B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in computer science,
and the M.Sc. degree in computer science from
R EFERENCES North-West University, South Africa, in 2015,
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14-nm tri-gate CMOS for always-on always-sensing applications,” IEEE computer engineering from the University of
J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 961–971, Apr. 2017. Pretoria. He is currently a Principal Researcher
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“A zigbee-based wireless sensor network node for ultraviolet detection Research (CSIR), a Research and Innovation
of flame,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 58, no. 11, pp. 5271–5277, Associate with the Tshwane University of Tech-
Nov. 2011. nology, and an Extraordinary Faculty Member
[16] Y.-C. Kan and C.-K. Chen, “A wearable inertial sensor node for with the University of Pretoria. He is an Associate
body motion analysis,” IEEE Sensors J., vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 651–657, Editor with IEEE ACCESS, the IEEE INTERNET
Mar. 2012. OF THINGS, and the IEEE TRANSACTION ON
[17] A. Somov, A. Baranov, D. Spirjakin, and R. Passerone, “Circuit Design INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS, and a member of many IEEE technical commu-
and Power Consumption Analysis of Wireless Gas Sensor Nodes: One- nities. He is the Founder of the Smart Networks Collaboration initiative
Sensor Versus Two-Sensor Approach,” IEEE Sensors J., vol. 14, no. 6, that aims to develop efficient and secure networks for the future smart
pp. 2056–2063, Jun. 2014. systems, such as smart cities, smart grid, and smart water grid.
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