Telos: enabling ultra-low power wireless research
IPSN '05 Proceedings of the 4th international symposium on Information processing in sensor networks
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
Energy saving and reliable long distance wireless communication are essential problems in wireless sensor networks (WSN) because of limited energy availability in the wireless sensors and application-specific requirements for faster, farther, and more reliable communication. We propose use of electronically controlled variable reactance passive elements antenna array (PEAA) [1, 2] for use with sensor nodes to achieve better wireless coverage and reduce energy expenditure during transmission and reception of data over wireless communications. Although the idea of using PEAA for WSN is not new [3] In contrast, we have developed and tested SAntArray: a working prototype of the antenna for WSN that has a novel digital direction controll. Our tests show energy savings and radio coverage increase when PEAA is used. The communication distance is increased four times in comparison to a regular sensor node with an onboard omnidirectional antenna with the same energy consumption.