A Vehicular Monitoring System with Power-Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks

Efficient and effective vehicular traffic planning and management call for an accurate and up-to-date traffic data. In Bangkok the data collection process often involves assigning fieldworkers to monitor traffic in a specified area. The collection process is often time-consuming and inaccurate due to human error. The city has brought in several technologies, such as pneumatic tubes, inductive loops and camera videos, for automatic traffic data collection and monitoring purposes. However, these technologies involve costly installation process and maintenance. It is difficult, or in cases of inductive loops, is impossible to relocate. In this work we study an application of wireless sensor network specifically to motor vehicle monitoring. It delivers several advantages including smaller size, easier installation and maintenance, and relocatable. We propose a star-based topology with a simple polling MAC protocol. It is shown that power efficiency can be easily achieved by setting MAC parameters appropriately. The energy consumption is calculated