DEEP: Design and Evaluation of an Energy-efficient Wireless Sensor Node for Leak Detection in Water Pipes

Wireless sensor network (WSN) has emerged a wide range of applications due to its performance, low cost, flexibility, ease-to-use and its efficiency. One of its most significant applications is the leak detection and localization in water pipelines. Various projects and works are reported in this context. However, improvements still needed in this field especially in term of node design. In fact, WSN is composed of battery powered small nodes that are in charge of collecting and transmitting data wirelessly. These devices are energy constrained and not well evolved in water pipeline application. In this paper, we present sensor node prototypes for water pipeline application. Experimental and comparative studies have been performed for the different node's components to achieve a final adequate node design, DEEP. Various processing platforms, sensors, amplifiers and communication technologies are theoretically and experimentally studied and evaluated. The comparison and the results presented, in this paper will help node designer especially for water pipeline monitoring. Moreover, they permitted us to design DEEP, an energy-aware sensor node platform by the use of power management techniques.