A New Architecture for Wireless Smart Sensor Based on Software Defined Radio

P. Ferrari, A. Flammini, E. Sisinni Dept. of Electronics for Automation Faculty of Engineering, University of Brescia Brescia, Italy [email protected] Abstract— Today wireless sensors technology is based on monolithic transceivers that optimize cost but have rigid hardware architecture. In this work, a new architecture for wireless sensors is presented. It is based on the Software Defined Radio concept and shows an impressive adaptability to the external conditions. The proposed architecture, called Wireless Ultra Smart Sensor, enables the use of a software programmable transceiver which can simultaneously manage multiple radio communication channels or standards. In addition, the Wireless Ultra Smart Sensor architecture can mix the flexible communication part of the smart device with the sensor conditioning part. This combination represents a new generation of general purpose sensors for microwave measurements in the GHz range (e.g. displacement and position sensing) with enhanced versatility, since the same radio frequency front-end is used both to communicate and to make measurements. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed architecture. The prototype shows the abilities of: managing multiple protocols using a single antenna; interfacing standard sensors; making delay and phase measurements with a standard deviation of 3 ns; and assigning time of arrival to incoming radio signals with an error on the order of 20 ns.