Title: Plug-and-play mechanism for plain transducers with wired digital interfaces attached to wireless sensor network nodes

Authors: Konstantin Mikhaylov; Tomi Pitkaäho; Jouni Tervonen

Addresses: RFMedia Laboratory, Oulu Southern Institute, University of Oulu, Vierimaantie 5, 84100, Ylivieska, Finland ' RFMedia Laboratory, Oulu Southern Institute, University of Oulu, Vierimaantie 5, 84100, Ylivieska, Finland ' RFMedia Laboratory, Oulu Southern Institute, University of Oulu, Vierimaantie 5, 84100, Ylivieska, Finland

Abstract: The ability to connect sensors to the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) nodes without the need for physical device configuration has many advantages: application development is simplified, network deployment and service is easier, and sensors can be swapped or added on-the-fly. The existing solution for sensor Plug-and-Play (P&P) for WSN nodes is the IEEE 1451 set of standards developed for smart transducers. The serious drawback of this solution is that it cannot be used with the most widespread plain transducers without adding multiple external components. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce a novel mechanism that allows implementation of P&P connection to WSN nodes for commercially available off-the-shelf sensors with the most widespread wired plain digital interfaces (SPI, I2C, 1-wire etc.) without any single external component utilisation.

Keywords: plug-and-play mechanisms; wireless sensor networks; plain transducers; wired digital interfaces; sensor identification; sensor discovery; digital sensors; WSNs; P&P; I2C; SPI; 1-wire; WSN nodes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSNET.2013.056336

International Journal of Sensor Networks, 2013 Vol.14 No.1, pp.50 - 63

Accepted: 30 Mar 2013
Published online: 10 Sep 2013 *

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