Russia has found a way to increase the reliability of wireless sensor networks

MOSCOW, November 30. NCFU scientists have developed a new digital filtering algorithm, which, according to its creators, will increase the reliability of wireless sensor networks. The research results were published in the journal Automatic Control and Computer Sciences.
A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a distributed, self-organizing network of many sensors and actuators interconnected by a radio channel. The coverage area of ​​such a network can range from several meters to several kilometers due to relaying.

As reported by researchers from the North Caucasus Federal University (NCFU), wireless sensor networks are capable of not only exchanging data between network nodes, but also collecting information from sensors of temperature, pressure, humidity, radiation levels or acoustic vibrations for analysis and processing.

According to them, WSN technology is widely used in security systems (for example, in the concept of a smart home) and in environmental monitoring. At the same time, her work often experiences interference.
“Wireless sensors must transmit the received information in real time as reliably as possible. However, this is often hampered by the noise that occurs during digital data transmission. Processing a communication channel damaged by noise, in turn, leads to errors in deciphering measurements,” said the head of the modular department computing and artificial intelligence NCFU Pavel Lyakhov.
To solve this problem, scientists developed a digital filtering algorithm. According to the creators, it can increase the reliability and efficiency of wireless sensor networks by at least one and a half times compared to existing systems and increase the efficiency of using WSN when sensors are remote from each other.

«To solve the problem of increasing reliability, we took as a basis the idea of ​​probabilistic filtering based on the Kalman filter. This is a mathematical algorithm that allows you to estimate the state of a system based on incomplete information and is used for dynamic systems in almost all areas of science and technology. However, unlike the well-known algorithms, we propose to locally combine measurements obtained from wireless network sensors. This approach reduces errors that arise,» said Diana Kalita, senior researcher at the Department of Science and Innovation at NCFU.

According to her, the results of the experiments showed that the new algorithm can be successfully applied in wireless sensor network systems. With its help, you can reduce the uncertainty arising during the measurement process and increase the reliability of the system.

In the future, scientists will develop a hardware implementation of the developed algorithm and use it on real data obtained from sensors in wireless sensor networks.
NCFU is a participant in the Russian state program of strategic academic leadership «Priority-2030».