In this manuscript, we present a survey of designs and implementations of research sensor nodes that rely on FPGAs, either based upon standalone platforms or as a combination of microcontroller and FPGA. Several current challenges in sensor networks are distinguished and linked to the features of modern FPGAs. As it turns out, low-power optimized FPGAs are able to enhance the computation of several types of algorithms in terms of speed and power consumption in comparison to microcontrollers of commercial sensor nodes. We show that architectures based on the combination of microcontrollers and FPGA can play a key role in the future of sensor networks, in fields where processing capabilities such as strong cryptography, self-testing and data compression, among others, are paramount.

/pdf/sensor-systems-based-on-fpgas-and-their-applications-a-875jev4ng8.pdf

Sensor Systems Based on FPGAs and Their Applications: A Survey

Energy-efficient and reliable transmission of sensory information is a key problem in wireless sensor networks. To save more energy, in-network processing such as data fusion is a widely used technique, which, however, may often lead to unbalanced information among nodes in the data fusion tree. Traditional schemes aim at providing reliable transmission to individual data packets from source node to the sink, but seldom offer the desired reliability to a data fusion tree. In this paper, we explore the problem of Minimum Energy Reliable Information Gathering (MERIG) when performing data fusion. By adaptively using redundant transmission on fusion routes without acknowledgments, packets with more information are delivered with higher reliability. For different data fusion topologies, such as star, chain, and tree, we provide optimal solutions to compute the number of transmissions for each node. We also propose practical, distributed approximation algorithms for chain and tree topologies. Analytical proofs and simulation results show that energy-efficient information reliability can be guaranteed in an unreliable wireless environment with the help of our proposed schemes.

Data Fusion with Desired Reliability in Wireless Sensor Networks

While for years traditional wireless sensor nodes have been based on ultra-low power microcontrollers with sufficient but limited computing power, the complexity and number of tasks of today’s applications are constantly increasing. Increasing the node duty cycle is not feasible in all cases, so in many cases more computing power is required. This extra computing power may be achieved by either more powerful microcontrollers, though more power consumption or, in general, any solution capable of accelerating task execution. At this point, the use of hardware based, and in particular FPGA solutions, might appear as a candidate technology, since though power use is higher compared with lower power devices, execution time is reduced, so energy could be reduced overall. In order to demonstrate this, an innovative WSN node architecture is proposed. This architecture is based on a high performance high capacity state-of-the-art FPGA, which combines the advantages of the intrinsic acceleration provided by the parallelism of hardware devices, the use of partial reconfiguration capabilities, as well as a careful power-aware management system, to show that energy savings for certain higher-end applications can be achieved. Finally, comprehensive tests have been done to validate the platform in terms of performance and power consumption, to proof that better energy efficiency compared to processor based solutions can be achieved, for instance, when encryption is imposed by the application requirements.

https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/12/3/2667/pdf

Using SRAM Based FPGAs for Power-Aware High Performance Wireless Sensor Networks

With the rapid development of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), the security of WSNs is an important issue in this field because of their vulnerabilities to attacks. Designing a reasonable trust management scheme that can evaluate the trust relationships among sensor nodes accurately is a challenging but meaningful task. In this paper, a credible Bayesian-based trust management scheme (BTMS) is proposed. The overall trust value is aggregated by both direct and indirect trust information. The former is calculated by a modified Bayesian equation and updated by a sliding window. The latter is computed by recommendations from a third party. Moreover, the indirect trust computation is invoked conditionally according to the uncertainty of direct trust calculated via Entropy Theory and malicious feedbacks are excluded. Meanwhile, different recommendations are appropriately weighted in light of the trust levels of recommenders. Simulations are conducted and the results show that, compared with existing approaches, the proposed trust model performs better in defeating attacks.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1155/2015/678926

A credible Bayesian-based trust management scheme for wireless sensor networks

When designing a protocol for data aggregation two things need to be considered; data reliability and energy efficiency. A good data aggregation protocol is one that achieves high data reliability using the least amount of overhead as possible. In case of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), data aggregation is widely accepted as an essential pattern for energy efficiency. In this paper, we propose An Energy Efficient Interest Based Reliable Data Aggregation (EIRDA) Protocol for WSNs. EIRDA effectively delivers the data to the sink. In EIRDA, we consider static clustering scheme for the uniform distribution of sensor nodes (SNs) in each cluster. Simulation result shows that EIRDA is efficient in terms of energy and achieves higher reliability.

/pdf/eirda-an-energy-efficient-interest-based-reliable-data-2trrm6yspp.pdf

EIRDA: An Energy Efficient Interest based Reliable Data Aggregation Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Recent advances in SoC technology offer the possibility to realize the function of wireless sensor network node in a single chip. In this paper a reconfigurable wireless sensor network node for quick transmission of voice data is being described. Compared with existing works, we can implement different types of components depends on the application in which the sensor is meant to use. Using Verilog, we provide a detailed description of the implementation of MAC layer controller protocol based on IEEE 802.15.4 MAC layer protocol. An improved CSMA/CA mechanism is introduced for the transmission of voice data, enhancing its timelines and reliability. Finally, we make up testing platform for MAC layer controller. From the hardware and software simulation results, the design of MAC layer controller based on FPGA is successfully verified.

Design of FPGA-Based Multimedia Node for WSN

In wireless sensor networks, the sensor nodes are used to collect observed data. But they may be interfered by the environment or attacked by an adversary. If that, the accuracy and reliability of the data will be affected. To avoid this problem, we propose a lightweight trust management framework for the multi-level cluster sensor networks by adopting the entropy-based trust model. The area trust of the cluster head is calculated from the propagation trust and the area trust of its cluster members. When the area trust of a cluster head drops below a threshold, it means that there are some exceptions in the data transmission of its area. Then the cluster head will detect these exceptions and repair them locally. From the analysis of the memory and communication overhead, it shows that this framework is lightweight and practical.

Entropy-Based Trust Management for Data Collection in Wireless Sensor Networks

Data aggregation in wireless sensor networks is widely accepted as an essential paradigm for energy efficient routing but with low reliability under node and link failures. In this paper, we propose a protocol called RDA which associates packet's reliability in data transmission with the amount of information it contains and gives higher reliability to the packet which has more information by adjusting the degree of redundancy. Therefore, RDA can jointly optimize both information reliability and energy efficiency in sensor networks with data aggregation. Especially, RDA is not banded with special routing schemes; hence it can be used with any kinds of routing schemes supporting data aggregation in wireless sensor networks

RDA: Reliable Data Aggregation Protocol for WSNs

Reliability guaranteed data transmission with energy efficiency is one of the major challenges in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in the presence of unreliable or lossy wireless link. In this paper, we propose a protocol called RTAM which could deliver packets at the desired reliability with low transmission cost by employing adaptive multi-coverage strategy. Sensors are deployed either randomly or evenly distributed to K-cover the monitored region, such that any point or sub area information could be sensed and delivered by multiple sensors and the network guarantees the desired reliability. Furthermore, in order to control the overhead of the reliable transmission, we introduce two algorithms ORS and CRS in RTAM, which ensure sensors automatically join to detection and reporting according to the desired reliability and local knowledge. Thus, RTAM can jointly optimize both information reliability and energy efficiency in sensor networks.

Reliability Guaranteed Data Transmission With Adaptive Multi-Coverage in Sensor Networks

Data fusion is widely used in wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we explore the problem of minimum energy reliable information gathering (MERIG) in wireless sensor networks under data fusion tree model. From the perspective of information value, two algorithms, the optimal algorithm and the distributed approximate algorithm are proposed. The optimal algorithm is the optimal solution for MERIG while the distributed algorithm can approximate the optimal well. Using these two schemes, the information reliability can be guaranteed with high energy efficient manner under unreliable wireless environment.

Hong Luo

Papers

Design of FPGA-Based Multimedia Node for WSN

Entropy-Based Trust Management for Data Collection in Wireless Sensor Networks

RDA: Reliable Data Aggregation Protocol for WSNs

Reliability Guaranteed Data Transmission With Adaptive Multi-Coverage in Sensor Networks

Minimum Energy Reliable Information Gathering Using Data Fusion Tree in WSNs