ISM band in

wireless
communicat
ion aspects
for
embedded
strain
measure
systems in
 mechanical
structures. Artur Andrzejczak, Piotr Pietrzak, Maciej Makowski, Andrzej Napieralski
Department of Microelectronics and Computer Science
Technical University of Lodz
Lodz, Poland
andrzejczak@dmcs.pl

Abstract—This paper describes considerations associated with
designing of wireless distributed strain measure system of
mechanical structures with particular emphasis on selection of
wireless communication technology. Problems associated with
particular wireless communication standards, the reasons of
their use, benefits and problems that comes with them. Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.4 networks are being presented and
compared witch each other. Summary of features allows to
identify areas of applications, in which those communication
protocols are suitable, then to propose structure of wireless strain
measure system.
Index Terms— strain, stress, humidity, temperature measure,
wireless communication, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.15.4,
ZigBee, distributed measure systems
I. INTRODUCTION
Strain monitoring systems allow to control and maintain
condition of various mechanical structures, like bridges, halls,
buildings and dams. Main reasons standing for applying this
kind of solutions are safety issues. Overload of mentioned
structures may cause substantial costs. What is more, damage
or even collapse comes with major threat for their users. The
are many factors, which can cause stress overload of
structures, for example weather conditions. Strong wind,
heavy snowfalls may exert major impact on exposed structure.
Ageing of materials has also significant influence on object's
preservation. Because of that, popularity of strain monitoring
systems is permanently rising. Constant measure of strain
or/and stress allow to take appropriate action in short time,
providing safety and cost efficient operation of monitored
structures.
In particular cases it is worth to consider the wireless
communication, which can come with several benefits. The
most significant advantage is avoidance of structural cabling.
There are many situations, where providing wire connection
between measure nodes comes with not viable/ unacceptable
costs. Obstacles can be both physical or formal. In first case,
high temperature or humidity may lead to faster degradation of
insulation and connectors. Those conditions can cause higher
costs, which are connected with installation and proper wire
quality. Formal obstacles often comes with additional time and
expenses. Mentioned issues become increasingly important
when measure system is being installed for short, specified
amount of time, usually for diagnostics purpose. In this kind
of situations, in spite of mains availability, wireless
communication is still efficient solution.
II.ISM BANDS
Most of currently applied wireless communication
solutions for measure devices use the ISM (Industrial
Scientific Medical) band. It is a set of bands, which doesn’t
require any license or permission to use with limited transmit
power. Primarily ISM frequencies were intended for industrial,
scientific and medical purposes, other than communication,
for example, microwave ovens. Today, in spite of original
destination, they are generally used for short range radio
communication, often accompanied by creation of small High, but
network infrastructures. Due to initial use and wide Maximum bandwidth
applicability of this kind of equipment, transceivers working Very high
number of Little (7) shared
on ISM band should be able to deal with various interferences. (2^64)
clients between
clients
TABLE I. EXAMPLE ISM BANDS Medium –
Security High – AES High – AES
SAFER
Example ISM bands
6.765 MHz 7.000 MHz Wireless
13.553 MHz 13.567 MHz Wireless, Mainly networks
26.957 MHz 27.283 MHz distributed consumer with TCP/IP
40.660 MHz 40.700 MHz controls electronics, protocol,
433.050 MHz 433.920 MHz Example systems like usually ad- complex
868.000 MHz 870.000 MHz applications industrial hoc networks control and
2.400 GHz 2.500 GHz automation in order to diagnostics
5.725 GHz 5.875 GHz and home exchange systems with
control data high data
24.000 GHz 24.250 GHz
exchange
61.000 GHz 61.500 GHz
122.000 GHz 123.000 GHz High in
244.000 GHz 246.000 GHz Average in High in both
consumer
industry and consumer
Popularity electronics,
consumer and industry
low in
ISM bands are defined by Radiocommunication Sector of electronics electronics
industry
International Telecommunication Union , however they may
vary in different countries, because of local regulations. (Table Significant differences between those technologies results
I) presents example ISM frequencies. with high importance of matching area of application to the
merits of various standards. Mismatch of chosen protocol and
needs of a particular solution can lead to unexpected
III. COMPARISON OF TECHNOLOGIES USING ISM BANDS
downtimes and additional costs. Hence, it is essential to
understand features and destination of mentioned standards.
For strain measure system three most popular standards are
taken under consideration (Table II), WiFi, Bluetooth in A. ZigBee
currently most popular version 3, and ZigBee, which is based ZigBee is suitable for solutions requiring high power
on IEEE 802.15.4. efficiency, wireless nodes are often battery powered. Because
of that, low hardware and protocol complexity and as short as
possible network joining time are expected. Physical layer,
TABLE II. COMPARSION BETWEEN WIRELESS STANDARDS
medium access control layer and logical link control sublayer
ZigBee Bluetooth WiFi for ZigBee are provided by IEEE 802.15.4. Using only those
three first layers gives possibility to lessen transceiver
Throughput 250 kbit/s 24 Mbit/s 600 Mbit/s complexity and power consumption. Mentioned characteristics
in conjunction with the possibility of large (2^64) number of
From 10 m to From 10 m to From 50 m to clients in one networks and link security, suits to the concept
Estimated of distributed wireless sensor networks, which makes ZigBee
few few hundred few
range accurate solution for industrial electronics. The most
kilometers meters kilometers
significant drawback of IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee networks
Available 868, 928, 2400, 5000 is low bandwidth, which restricts considered technology to
2400 MHz
Bands 2400 MHz MHz applications with low demand for link data rate.
Protocol
Low High High
complexity B. Wi-Fi
Power WiFi networks due to the complexity protocols, and as a
Low Medium High
consumption result high computational requirements, are not able to operate
Network Below 30 for longer time periods on battery power, which restricts them
Few seconds Few seconds to the mains supply. In comparison to IEEE 802.15.4 and
join time milliseconds
ZigBee networks, bandwidth is substantial advantage, which
ad-hoc, star, opens up possibilities for high data rate demanding
Topologies ad-hoc, star ad-hoc, star applications, like video broadcast or measure systems with
mesh
high frequency dynamics. Despite this essential difference, the
two of mentioned technologies can complement each other. As
an example may serve wireless measurement network. Nodes
send acquired data to the local coordinator using IEEE
802.15.4, which forwards results to data centre using Wireless
LAN.
C. Bluetooth
When considering the Bluetooth, it’s major advantage is
the presence in most portable consumer electronics, for
example smart phones, tablets and notebooks. Therefore it is
proper solution for wireless configuration interfaces, when
operator uses e.g. netbook to set up or read machine’s
parameters. High complexity of the protocol connected with
significant restrictions tightens the set of possible applications.
Medium power consumption and relatively long network join
time induces to consideration other standards. As a
confirmation of outlined opinion might be new Bluetooth
standard, version 4. It divides Bluetooth to low energy version
using low-complexity, with IEEE 802.15.4-like bandwidth,
protocol and high speed version which is based on WiFi. In
the future, Bluetooth v4 Low Energy might compete with
IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee networks.
D. Characteristic of IEEE 802.15.4
IEEE 802.15.4 defines the two first layers of Open
Systems Interconnection model – physical (PHY) and medium
access control (MAC). This protocol provides reliability and
throughput acceptable for low-frequency measure and control
systems, while ensuring low power consumption and
complexity of transceiver. When more sophisticated
communication features are required, additional higher-layer
protocols like ZigBee or 6LoWPAN might be applied.
Major application field for solutions using IEEE 802.15.4
are wireless sensor networks. They consist of many small,
similar to each other, nodes, deployed in particular area.
Typically physical quantities like temperature, humidity or
light intensity are being measured. As previously mentioned,
considered measurement system analyses strain. Wireless
sensor network applied in this particular solution allows to
continuous monitoring strain and stress of mechanical
structures and ambient conditions around it. Gathered
quantities from many points leads to more accurate assessment
of state of analyzed object.
There are three available frequency groups (Table III),
which can be used by IEEE 802.15.4. Depending on selected
frequency and modulation, different throughput and range
might be available.
TABLE III. AVALIBLE FREQUENCIES AND MODULATION FOR IEEE
802.15.4
Number
Band of Throughput Modulations Area
channels
868.0 1 20 kbit/s BPSK Europe
868.6 100 kbit/s O-QPSK
MHz 250 kbit/s ASK
30 40 kbit/s BPSK
902.0 250 kbit/s ASK
North
928.0
250 kbit/s O-QPSK America
MHz
2400.0
2483.5 16 250 kbit/s O-QPSK World
MHz
IV.RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BAND AND COVERAGE
2.4 GHz band is popular choice because of worldwide
availability. In earlier specification of IEEE 802.15.4, 860
MHz and 900 MHz band offered lower throughput (20 and 40
kbit/s), which made 2.4 GHz even more appealing.
The distance over which connection can be set up depends
on the band, in which transceiver operates. When the antennas
have no visual contact, communication takes place through the
obstacles, reflecting from them and bending. What is more,
attenuation of materials depends on frequency of
electromagnetic wave passing through. Attenuation is rising
with frequency of the wave. Example is shown on in the
picture below.
Attenuation is caused by resonance of particles in the
atmosphere, mainly water and oxygen. As a result of this
phenomenon, range decreases. Another relevant effect is
reflection of the electromagnetic wave. Similarly to the
attenuation , higher frequency of the wave, more energy is
absorbed by the object, which reduces energy reflected from
obstacle, and as a final result – decreases range. Next
phenomenon is diffraction. When wave encounters obstacle, it
bends around it. The angle of deflection depends on length of
wave and relative size of the object. The lower frequency, the
greater deflection angle. When dealing with large obstacles,
for example mountains, electromagnetic wave with lower
frequency might be more efficient with reaching client behind
the obstacle.
Another important issue is also the amount of the
interference in selected band. It requires most concern in 2.4
GHz band. This frequency is used by many ISM devices, like
microwaves, WiFi networks, Bluetooth adapters, analog
surveillance cameras, etc. Accumulation of large number of
mentioned devices in a limited space, causing interference,
which will lead to decreased IEEE 802.15.4 network coverage
and capacity.
Presented factors make 860 MHz band an interesting
choice in Europe because of its lessen popularity, hence,
decreased chance for interference. Main drawback of this
frequency range is availability of only one channel, which
might be insufficient in particular cases. 2.4 GHz band have
16 channels available, 2 MHz widespread. On both bands,
many IEEE 802.15.4 transceivers have output power above
100 mW, which makes their range competitive to WiFi
networks. In most cases, IEEE 802.15.4 uses DSSS spread
spectrum technique.
V. NETWORK TOPOLOGY FOR STRAIN MEASUREMENT
IEEE 802.15.4 defines two types of network devices. FFD
(Full Function Device) has full protocol functionality, offering
connectivity to any client of the network and as a result is able
to work as network coordinator, network node or end device.
Second type is RFD (Reduced Function Device), often with
reduced computing and energy resources, being able to
communicate only with FFD, hence, being unable to route
traffic from other nodes. Picture below presents two most
popular network topologies, star and peer to peer.
IEEE 802.15.4 doesn’t define routing, which can be
implemented on higher OSI layers. One of the most common
standard basing on IEEE 802.15.4 is ZigBee, relation between
them is being shown on in (Fig. 1).
Figure 1. ZigBee and IEEE 802.15.4 OSI layers
ZigBee was developed by ZigBee Alliance, which
assiosiates many well-known companies from elecronics
industry, for example Atmel, Analog Devices, Freescale,
Texas Instruments and many others . ZigBee provides mesh
topology and aproperiate to it routing algorithms. It also
defines ways of joining and authorizing devices into the
network.
Figure 2. ZigBee Mesh network topology
ZigBee Protocol defines three types of network nodes –
coordinator, router and end device. Coordinator is gate of the
network, allowing to e.g. store and analyze acquired data
externally. Routers are responsible for forwarding data packets
from source to destination. Coordinator also has a
functionality of the router, as well as some end devices,
provided that they have sufficient power resources. If not, they
do not participate in routing, confining themselves to end
device functionality – commonly measurement.
Due to mesh network topology, when sending data, source
node do not require direct radio connection with recipient
(Fig. 2). Packets between them can be passed through one or
more routers. For example, when node A wants to send a
message to coordinator, it forwards it to router B. B may
choose a way to coordinator, for example by node D. If there
is no connection with device D, caused by its malfunction or
interference, data can go thorough C and D. ZigBee uses
AODV (Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector) routing.
Connection pathway is collated only on request. Described
mechanisms applied in ZigBee standard provides reliable,
tolerant to faults and unexpected changes, data exchange.
VI. STRUCTURE OF MEASUREMENT SYSTEM
Considered system should be able to measure strain in
mechanical structures and send results wirelessly to a Linux
computer, which could allow further analysis of data.
Furthermore, humidity and temperature will be acquired to
assess environmental conditions, which might have impact of
obtained results. Exchange of data between measure network
and PC will be carried out by IEEE 802.15.4, possibly
enhanced with ZigBee standard, which ensure, that presented
in this article issues will be efficiently solved.
The project focuses on developing a measurement module,
which will be able to operate in distributed strain measure
network. It is expected to be power efficient, while providing
high measurement accuracy. Two basic modes of operation
will be implemented. Continuous high speed measure and low
power, periodical measure, will allow both to precisely asses
behaviour of construction and monitoring its condition over a
longer period of time. This makes several demands to
proposed device, like high performance microcontroller and
ability to power down currently unused parts of the system.
Schematic diagram of considered solution is being presented
on (Fig. 3).
 Analog-digital converter reads voltage from electrical
strain gauge bridge, and sends data to the microcontroller,
which would be also responsible for acquiring data from
temperature and humidity sensor. When measure values are
ready to send, microcontroller uses transceiver to pass through
results to computer. Using additional power converter for
analog circuit, primarily electrical strain gauge bridge comes
with two substantial benefits. Analog supply voltage can be
filtered out of distortions, which significantly increases
accuracy of strain measure results. Moreover, microcontroller
is able to power down analog circuit, when no measurement is
performed, which essentially reduces power consumption in
case of periodical strain monitoring.
Presented aspects of wireless communication for strain
measurement systems leads to conclusion, that due to , IEEE
802.15.5 reliability and minor hardware requirements, it seems
to be the best available solution. Proposed system structure is
initial state of development of more advanced strain measure
system.
REFERENCES
[1] Shahin Farahani, “ZigBee Wireless Networks and Transceivers”,
Newnes, 2008.
[2] Pejman Roshan, Jonathan Leary, “802.11 Wireless LAN Fundamentals”,
Figure 3. Proposed system structure Cisco Press, 2004.
[3] David Kammer, Gordon McNutt, Brian Senese, “Bluetooth, Application
Developer’s Guide: The Short Range Interconnect Solution”, Syngress