Research Article
Powering environment monitoring Wireless Sensor Networks: A review of design and operational challenges in Eastern Africa
@ARTICLE{10.4108/eai.13-7-2018.155570, author={Maximus Byamukama and Geofrey Bakkabulindi and Bj\o{}rn Pehrson and Mary Nsabagwa and Roseline Akol}, title={Powering environment monitoring Wireless Sensor Networks: A review of design and operational challenges in Eastern Africa}, journal={EAI Endorsed Transactions on Internet of Things}, volume={4}, number={14}, publisher={EAI}, journal_a={IOT}, year={2018}, month={3}, keywords={Automatic Weather Station, Environment Monitoring, Power Management, Wireless Sensor Networks}, doi={10.4108/eai.13-7-2018.155570} }- Maximus Byamukama
Geofrey Bakkabulindi
Björn Pehrson
Mary Nsabagwa
Roseline Akol
Year: 2018
Powering environment monitoring Wireless Sensor Networks: A review of design and operational challenges in Eastern Africa
IOT
EAI
DOI: 10.4108/eai.13-7-2018.155570
Abstract
This paper discusses the various design and operational challenges that we have met in providing power to Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) deployed in environment monitoring in East Africa. While such deployments in African environments have a major advantage of abundant sunshine, both in intensity and duration, the same environments still present a number of unique challenges. With the various research initiatives in Africa being quite disjointed, a major problem is the lack of a unified knowledge base that communicates the current challenges and solutions in designing power systems for these WSNs. We implemented a WSN with several autonomous sensors and two types of gateways. We kept track of voltages, uptime and other diagnostic data. We combine our experiences from the study of these devices, and those of some others in the region and other developing countries and make recommendations where we have achieved good results and propose solutions where work is still in progress.
Copyright © 2018 M. Byamukama et al., licensed to EAI. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unlimited use, distribution and reproduction in any medium so long as the original work is properly cited.