Giving neurons to sensors. QoS management in wireless sensors networks.

Public utilities services (gas, water and electricity) have been traditionally automated with several technologies. The main functions that these technologies must support are AMR, automated meter reading, and SCADA, supervisory control and data acquisition. Most meter manufacturers provide devices with Bluetoothreg or ZigBeetrade communication features. This characteristic has allowed the inclusion of wireless sensor networks (WSN) in these systems. Once WSNs have appeared in such a scenario, real-time AMR and SCADA applications can be developed with low cost. Data must be routed from every meter to a base station. This paper describes the use of a novel QoS-driven routing algorithm, named SIR: sensor intelligence routing, over a network of meters. An artificial neural network is introduced in every node to manage the routes that data have to follow. The resulting system is named intelligent wireless sensor network (IWSN).