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A multi‐channel wireless connection system for structural health monitoring applications
Author(s) -
Casciati Sara,
Chen ZhiCong
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
structural control and health monitoring
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.587
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1545-2263
pISSN - 1545-2255
DOI - 10.1002/stc.403
Subject(s) - wireless , wi fi array , key distribution in wireless sensor networks , wireless sensor network , channel (broadcasting) , fixed wireless , computer science , engineering , electronic engineering , computer network , wireless network , real time computing , telecommunications
To overcome the drawbacks related to a wired solution for structural health monitoring applications, many kinds of wireless sensors have been proposed and prototyped. Most of these sensors are of the single channel type. Multi‐channel solutions also exist and they are mainly based on time‐division multiplexing (TDM). Both these types of wireless communication systems cause large time delays when a large number of sensors nodes are deployed. In this paper, a different multi‐channel wireless sensor solution, based on a mixed approach that exploits both TDM and frequency‐division multiplexing (FDM), is introduced. As a result, the time delay is independent of the number of sensor nodes. The real‐time multi‐channel feature represents a key aspect of the proposed wireless sensing network. The wireless scheme is initially intended a simple solution for analog cable replacement and it is preliminarily tested in a laboratory environment. The powerful and flexible system‐on‐chip single‐chip wireless transceiver, which can operate in the Industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) license‐free frequency bands, is employed to perform both the control function and the wireless communication. The goal is to reach a good balance among communication range, power consumption, data rate, and link quality. The overall design, the implementation, and an experimental validation of the proposed multi‐channel wireless sensor solution are presented. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.