Wireless Sensor Network Testbed for Mobile Data Communication

Testing of wireless sensor network protocols can be tedious for large networks when mobility is added. Mainly because these networks involve a large number of nodes scattered in an ad-hoc configuration. Although there are several publicly available static sensor network testbeds, testbeds where mobility is facilitated are very rare. One of the main objectives of this work is to provide a general hardware platform, which supports to implement different protocols for mobile sensor networks. The testbed is implemented with one base station node, one mule and five sensor nodes, where data mules move in a random manner through a community of fixed sensor nodes. As the mule comes within range of each sensor node, it collects the available data. After collecting data from all the sensor nodes, the mule returns to a central node, where it uploads all the data collected. The motes are connected to the central node through a Local Area Network (LAN), which provides a monitoring backbone network to the testbed. Testbed provides the facility of analyzing protocols with various user friendly features at the central node. Motes behavior when communicating with the mule can be monitored in real time. Communication protocols for data transfer between a mobile node and a fixed node were developed and tested on the testbed platform The designed test bed is a useful tool for educational and research purposes in the area of wireless sensor networks.