Approaches for environmental monitoring sensor networks

ZigBee was and continues to be a surprisingly low cost solution in terms of wireless networking, with a tendency to become even more affordable as time goes by and technology is pushed further. Furthermore, ZigBee networks facilitate many applications, such as home automation, healthcare medical monitoring, environmental monitoring and so on. Energy consumption, security, latency and reliability are critical performance measurements in most monitoring systems. This paper focuses on two approaches in building an environmental monitoring sensor network: one built around a low power microcontroller and two radio modules communicating through the ZigBee protocol and one cloud-connected solution, with integrated sensors and data being transmitted through wireless communications in a ZigBee network infrastructure. The results showed that both implementations provide similar results, but each one has advantages and disadvantages.