Toward implementing an efficient gateway for wireless sensor networks

Timely and energy efficient data delivery is important in wireless sensor network applications. To reduce the probability of wireless sensor network disconnection from user a lower energy consumption gateway must be used, but data delivery speed should be maintained as high as possible. So our purpose is to compare and analyze common approach of building gateway for wireless sensor network applications, where high performance ARM boards are used as gateways, with less common approach, where simple eight bit microcontroller boards can work as gateway. We develop two similar test-beds using two available boards – DiGi Wi-9C (high-end) and ATXmega Xplained-A1 (low-end). We test both boards using the same data processing algorithm and by measuring delivery speed and energy consumption we make conclusions. Contrary to our expectations simple eight bit microcontroller showed even better results than we had expected. While this board consumed less energy it guaranteed faster and more stable (little or no delivery speed deviations) data delivery. Thus we concluded that using simpler hardware can not only reduce energy consumption, but ensure high data delivery speed as well. Keywords—sensor network, gateway, data transmission speed, energy efficiency