Architecture and method for traffic management of a monitoring sensor network

A method for a monitoring network comprising:

• transmitting a plurality of data packets from a plurality of sensor nodes to a monitoring station through a plurality of sink nodes, wherein each sensor node performs the step of generating said data packets, wherein generating comprises generating a source field and at least one attribute field in each data packet, the attribute field configured to carry quality of service information comprising energy consumption, sending delay or sending time;
• sending the data packets from the sink nodes to the monitoring station through a satellite;
• and
• dynamically associating, by the monitoring station, the sensor nodes to the sink nodes to create a plurality of pairs of sensor nodes-sink nodes, and so that the data packets sent by the sensor nodes are transmitted to the satellite through only one selected sink node among said plurality of sink nodes;
• wherein the sending delay is a measurement of an amount of time the data packet spends in the selected sink node prior to being processed and forwarded to the satellite, the energy consumption is a measurement of a number of sensor nodes that the data packet goes through prior to arriving at the selected sink node and the sending time is a measurement of an amount of time it takes for the data packet to be transmitted from the sensor node where the data packet is generated to the selected sink node;
• wherein each sink node performs the step of generating a plurality of control packets, each control packet including a sensor field, univocally identifying a generating sensor node of said plurality of sensor nodes, a sink field, univocally identifying the sink node generating the control packet, and a metric portion carrying quality of service information relating to transmission conditions between the generating sensor node and the monitoring station, the metric portion carrying quality of service information comprising energy consumption, sending delay, sink delivery load, and satellite channel fading level;
• and
• wherein the metric portions of the control packets include a plurality of metric fields, the step of dynamically associating the sensor nodes to the sink nodes comprises:
• reading the sensor fields, the sink fields and the metric fields of the control packets;
• generating a matrix structure including, for each of the plurality of pairs of sensor nodes-sink nodes, the received metric fields;
• computing, for each sensor node, an ideal vector structure having a plurality of maximum values, each maximum value being selected as a maximum among analogous metric fields associated with a same sensor node and different sink nodes in the matrix structure;
• computing distances between the ideal vector and the metric fields of the different sink node;
• and
• selecting, for each sensor node, a sink node having a minimum computed distance.

A monitoring network comprising:

• a plurality of sensor nodes, wherein each of the plurality of sensor nodes comprises a packet generator configured to generate a plurality of data packets, the packet generator comprising source field generating means and attribute field generating means, the attribute field generating means configured to generate at least one attribute field carrying quality of service information comprising energy consumption, sending delay or sending time;
• a plurality of sink nodes;
• and
• a monitoring station;
• wherein each of the plurality of sensor nodes is configured to send the plurality of data packets to at least one of the plurality of sink nodes, the at least one sink node configured to send the plurality of data packets to the monitoring station via a satellite;
• wherein the monitoring station comprises dynamic selection means for dynamically associating each of the plurality of sensor nodes to a selected sink node of the plurality of sink nodes to create a plurality of pairs of sensor nodes-sink nodes, and so that the plurality of data packets sent by each of the plurality of sensor nodes are transmitted to the satellite through only the selected sink node;
• and
• wherein the sending delay is a measurement of an amount of time the data packet spends in the selected sink node prior to being processed and forwarded to the satellite, the energy consumption is a measurement of a number of sensor nodes that the data packet goes through prior to arriving at the selected sink node and the sending time is a measurement of an amount of time it takes for the data packet to be transmitted from the sensor node where the data packet is generated to the selected sink node;
• wherein each sink node comprises a sink queue controller configured to generate control packets, the sink queue controller comprising sensor field generating means configured to generate a sensor field in said control packets univocally identifying a respective sensor node, and metric field generating means configured to generate a plurality of metric fields, each metric field carrying quality of service information chosen among energy consumption, sending delay, sink delivery load, and satellite channel fading level;
• and
• wherein the dynamic selection means are further configured to:
• (1) red the sensor fields, the sink fields and the metric fields of the control packets;
• (2) generate a matrix structure including, for each of the plurality of pairs of sensor nodes-sink nodes, the received metric fields;
• (3) compute, for each sensor node, an ideal vector structure having a plurality of maximum values, each maximum value being selected as a maximum among analogous metric fields associated with a same sensor node and different sink nodes in the matrix structure;
• (4) compute distances between the ideal vector and the metric fields of the different sink node;
• and (5) select, for each sensor node, a sink node having a minimum computed distance.