Long-range wireless sensor nodes — Lessons learned

This paper presents our experiences with long-range wireless sensor node modules we gathered during the preparation of the water distribution monitoring demonstrator in the WSAN4CIP project. Due to their very specific energy consumption and data propagation characteristics such modules are very seldom considered in the area of WSN. The paper first describes the requirements of the mentioned demonstrator and then, goes through the development of the hardware that satisfies these requirements. It analyses the possible development ways, considering the available hardware modules at date and the given time-frame of the project. Additionally, the reliability, flexibility and the ease of use of the proposed solutions is researched. These are then evaluated for the finally developed platform. For the discovered drawbacks, alternative potential solutions are proposed.