Wireless Sensors and Actuators Networks: Characterization and Cases Study for Confined Spaces Healthcare and Control Applications

Abstract

Nowadays developments in Wireless Sensor and Actuators Networks (WSAN) applications are determined by the fulfillment of constraints imposed by the application. For this reason, in this work a characterization of WSAN applications in health, environmental, agricultural and industrial sectors are presented. Two cases study are presented, in the first a system for detecting heart arrhythmias in non-critical patients during rehabilitation sessions in confined spaces is presented, as well as an architecture for the network and nodes in these applications is proposed; while the second case presents experimental and theoretical results of the effect produced by communication networks in a Networks Control System (NCS), specifically by the use of the Medium Access Control (MAC) algorithm implemented in IEEE 802.15.4.