Eric James Anderson
CSE 591 – Wireless Sensor Networks
Project Proposal
Wireless Temperature Distribution
Wireless sensor networks can be defined as autonomous, ad hoc systems consisting of a
collective of networked sensor nodes designed to intercommunicate via wireless radio.
They are currently one of the more predominant topics of interest throughout the
computer science and engineering community, and an ideal topic for study, research and
project experimentation.
For my project this semester, I would like to propose the topic of wireless temperature
distribution over a fixed wireless sensor network. Specifically, I would like to use Mica
Mote sensor nodes to document temperature distribution over a measured area of
enclosed living space in my 1700 square foot house. I suggest a four phased approach to
completing this project. First, I would need to setup and configure a development
environment in my home office that could accommodate the efforts needed to develop an
application for use with Mica Mote sensor nodes. Mica Motes are sensor nodes
manufactured by CrossBow and run on the TinyOS operating system. Each mote is
equipped with a sensor unit, power unit, transceiver unit, ADC unit, and processor. I
would then need to install TOSSIM, the Mica Mote emulator, on my home office
workstation and ensure that the software is functioning correctly.
The second phase of my project involves installing the NesC libraries on my home
workstation. NesC is a procedural language based loosely on ANSI C that is used to
program the CrossBow devices. Once the environment is configured, I can begin the
process of writing the code that will allow the sensor nodes to gather temperature data
and report this information back to the base station at set time intervals. All software
tests will need to be run on the TOSSIM emulator, since I will not yet have access to
actual Mica Mote nodes. Once the sensor node software has been completed and tested
on the emulator, I would need to write a Java-based application that will interface with
the Mica base station and collect sensor node temperature readings via the serial port.
This data would be catalogued in real-time and sent to an SQL database.
The third phase of my project involves borrowing a Mica Mote base station module and
four MTS300CA sensor nodes from Doctor Gupta’s research laboratory at Arizona State
University. I would take laser measurements of the living space of my 1700 square foot
house and map the air volume of each of the four areas where sensors are to be located.
The nodes would then be placed appropriately in each of the 4 main living areas as to
heighten sensor accuracy and location distribution. Once the sensors are in place and the
NesC code has been uploaded into the flash memories, I will measure temperature
distribution throughout my house at steady intervals over a 72 hour period. At every
interval each sensor node will report individual temperature readings to the centralized
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