Analysis of Image Transmission for Wireless Sensor Networks in the Mine Tunnel

The research aimed to use Wireless Sensor Networks(WSNs) applying in the mine tunnel environmental monitoring. The wireless sensor node has a camera which can transmit live image signal in order to monitor the status in the mine tunnel when an exception occurs that the wireless sensor nodes perceived such as humidity increases, gas concentration increases, etc. The quality of image signal depends on Group of Pictures (GOP) structure and Quantization Scale(Qscale). In this paper, the effects of the GOP length and Qscale to the image quality for wireless sensor networks in the mine tunnel are investigated. The encoded image signal converted in to trace files using the tools-MyEvalvid-NT, and then run in a simulated network environment -NS2. The image files which the sink node received are examined in terms of average PSNR. The simulation results indicate that in range of setting parameters, by increasing the GOP length and the value of Qscale, the average PSNR decreases gradually, the image quality is worse, which is significant for our future research on wireless sensor networks applying in the mine tunnel environmental monitoring.