**4.2. WSN as a solution for communication in the IoNaT concept**

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are an important technology for large-scale monitoring, providing sensor measurements at high temporal and spatial resolution [31–33]. In general, WSNs are composed of a large number of low-cost and low-power sensor nodes communicating at distance and sink nodes. Routing nodes and cluster head nodes are also used in WSNs.

<sup>2</sup> Temperature gradients are the temperature difference between the two bodies over a specified distance between them. 3 The tree is of the species *Adenanthera pavonina*, commonly called red lucky seed, located in the City of João Pessoa, PB in Brazil.

**Figure 3.** Temperature gradient comes from different annual rings related to external temperature [13].

WSN technology was triggered by the availability of low-cost low-power feature-rich micro-

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35

**Figure 6** shows a general structure of a WSN in a very popular implementation, which com-

• **End device** (also called sensor node): It contains functionality of sensing and communicating with its parent node (the coordinator or a router) and does not participate in routing. • **Router**: It acts as an intermediate device, and its main function is to participate in multihop/mesh routing of network messages permitting them to propagate over long distances. • **Coordinator** (also called sink node): It controls the entire WSN, initiates the network and is capable of bridging other networks, generally, using a **gateway**. In general, currently, the gateway is used to connect the WSN to some Cloud service as data storage, analytics,

An important application of WSN technology is in environment monitoring [called environmental sensor network (ESN)] that has attracted considerable research interests in recent years [36], and they can be applied in pollution monitoring, meteorological conditions measurement (e.g., temperature, wind velocity, solar radiation, atmospheric precipitation etc.), forest fire, seismic activity, etc. [37]. In addition, depending on the density of nodes distributed in a natural environment, WSN technology presents potential to support communications in the

The environmental sensor network is directly related with IoNaT paradigm because cur-

controller, some peripherals and RF radio, to design nodes for the network capable of running with extreme low energy [38]. In addition, modern SoCs with RF communication

An SoC is an integrated circuit that integrates some components in the same chip like processor, digital, analog, mixed-

), which integrates micro-

controllers and single-chip radio transceivers [31].

presence of vegetation due to the short distances involved.

signal peripherals and RF transceiver—all on a single chip.

rently, it is possible to utilize low-power System-on-Chip (SoC4

prises of the following three nodes [34, 35]:

**Figure 6.** Typical wireless sensor networks.

visualization, and so on.

4

**Figure 4.** Temperature measurement in three depths of a tree: 100, 75 and 50 mm and the external temperature.

**Figure 5.** A possible implementation of the tree trunk energy harvesting transducer.

Energy Resources in Agriculture and Forestry: How to be Prepared for the Internet of Things… http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.74940 35

**Figure 6.** Typical wireless sensor networks.

**Figure 4.** Temperature measurement in three depths of a tree: 100, 75 and 50 mm and the external temperature.

**Figure 3.** Temperature gradient comes from different annual rings related to external temperature [13].

34 Energy Systems and Environment

**Figure 5.** A possible implementation of the tree trunk energy harvesting transducer.

WSN technology was triggered by the availability of low-cost low-power feature-rich microcontrollers and single-chip radio transceivers [31].

**Figure 6** shows a general structure of a WSN in a very popular implementation, which comprises of the following three nodes [34, 35]:


An important application of WSN technology is in environment monitoring [called environmental sensor network (ESN)] that has attracted considerable research interests in recent years [36], and they can be applied in pollution monitoring, meteorological conditions measurement (e.g., temperature, wind velocity, solar radiation, atmospheric precipitation etc.), forest fire, seismic activity, etc. [37]. In addition, depending on the density of nodes distributed in a natural environment, WSN technology presents potential to support communications in the presence of vegetation due to the short distances involved.

The environmental sensor network is directly related with IoNaT paradigm because currently, it is possible to utilize low-power System-on-Chip (SoC4 ), which integrates microcontroller, some peripherals and RF radio, to design nodes for the network capable of running with extreme low energy [38]. In addition, modern SoCs with RF communication

<sup>4</sup> An SoC is an integrated circuit that integrates some components in the same chip like processor, digital, analog, mixedsignal peripherals and RF transceiver—all on a single chip.

(PEV) and through the National Institute of Science and Technology of Micro and Nanoelectronics Systems (INCT-NAMITEC) and by FAPEMA-Universal (N° 40/2015 grant number 01550/16).

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37

\* and Orlando Baiocchi<sup>2</sup>

[1] Ashton K. That 'Internet of Things' thing: In the real world, things matter more than ideas. RFID Journal. 2009. [Online]. Available: http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/

[2] Walker R. From Big Data to Big Profits: Success with Data and Analytics. Oxford

[5] Kularatna N. Rechargeable battery technologies. In: Energy Storage Devices for

[6] Nishio K, Furukawa N. Practical batteries. In: Daniel C, Besenhard JO, editors. Handbook of Battery Materials. 2nd ed. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA; 2007.

[7] Nordrum A. The internet of fewer things [news]. IEEE Spectrum. Oct. 2016;**53**(10):12-13

[8] IEA International Energy Agency. Global EV Outlook 2017: Two Million and Counting.

[9] Jiang L, Yuan S, Wu H, Yin C, Miao W. Electro-thermal modeling and experimental verification for 18650 Li-ion cell. 2016 IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference

[10] Young K, Wang C, Wang LY, Strunz K. Electric Vehicle Integration into Modern Power

[3] Rahn CCD, Wang CYC. Battery Systems Engineering. p. 256; 2012

[4] Linden D, Reddy TB. Handbook of Batteries, no. 3d; 2001

Electronic Systems. Elsevier; 2015. pp. 29-61

**Conflict of interest**

**Author details**

**References**

view?4986

pp. 19-61

University Press; 2015

IEA Publ; 2017. pp. 1-71

Networks; 2013

VPPC 2016–Proc; 2016. pp. 2-6

Cleonilson Protasio de Souza<sup>1</sup>

There is no conflict of interest to report.

\*Address all correspondence to: protasio@cear.ufpb.br 1 Federal University of Paraíba, João Pessoa, PB, Brazil 2 University of Washington Tacoma, Tacoma, WA, EUA

**Figure 7.** IoNaT node. SD: Energy storage device. ECC: Energy conditioning circuit. RF: RF transceiver.

capability have different low-power or sleep modes to save energy during times of inactivity. The management of these modes is very important in relation with an energy harvesting strategy allowing to refill the energy storage device during these periods of low activity [16].

Considering the environmental sensor network, energy harvesting and low-power RF SoC, a possible structure for an IoNaT node is shown in **Figure 7**.

It is important to observe that as the data coming from IoNaT nodes would be sporadic and with an extremely low data rate, potential technologies to implement an IoNaT-node network may be those based on the IEEE 802.15.4 physical radio specification [39], particularly, for example, ZigBee [40] that features low-power and low-bandwidth capabilities. Another potential technology for the same purpose would be LoRaWAN [41] that is a low-power widearea network (LPWAN) that features low-power and low-bandwidth capabilities, but is still capable to sustain long-range wireless connections. However, LoRaWAN only implements star topology.
