Fence Monitoring – Experimental Evaluation of a Use Case for Wireless Sensor Networks.pdfVIP

Fence Monitoring – Experimental Evaluation of a Use Case for Wireless Sensor Networks Georg Wittenburg, Kirsten Terfloth, Freddy Lo?pez Villafuerte, Tomasz Naumowicz, Hartmut Ritter, and Jochen Schiller {wittenbu,terfloth,lopez,naumowic,hritter,schiller}@inf.fu-berlin.de Department of Mathematics and Computer Science Freie Universita?t Berlin Takustr. 9, 14195 Berlin, Germany Abstract. In-network data processing and event detection on resource- constrained devices are widely regarded as distinctive and novel features of wireless sensor networks. The vision is that through cooperation of many sensor nodes the accuracy of event detection can be greatly im- proved. On the practical side however, little real-world experience exists in how far these goals can be achieved. In this paper, we present the results of a small deployment of sensor nodes attached to a fence with the goal of collaboratively detecting and reporting security relevant incidents, such as a person climbing over the fence. Based on experimental data we discuss in detail the process of in- network event detection both from the conceptual side and by evaluating the results obtained. Reusing the same traces in a simulated network, we also look into the impact of multi-hop event reporting. Keywords: Wireless sensor networks, in-network data processing, event detection, experimental evaluation, use case, fence monitoring 1 Introduction, Goals and Motivation The close cooperation of individual sensor nodes in order to achieve a common goal is a key feature of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). While a wealth of distributed algorithms has been proposed and evaluated in the areas of medium access and routing, the situation is different for distributed event detection: Several theoretical approaches have been described [1,2,3], but to the best of our knowledge none of them has been evaluated in a real-world experiment. On the other hand, several high-profile deployments of WSNs have been un- dertaken and evaluate