Tales from the C130 Horror Room: A Wireless Sensor Network Story in a Data Center

  • Ramona Marfievici
  • , Alan McGibney
  • , Pablo Corbalán
  • , Susan Rea
  • , David Rojas
  • , Dirk Pesch

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingsConference proceedingpeer-review

Abstract

An important aspect of the management and control of modern data centers is cooling and energy optimization. Airflow and temperature measurements are key components for modeling and predicting environmental changes and cooling demands. For this, a wireless sensor network (WSN) can facilitate the sensor deployment and data collection in a changing environment. However, the challenging characteristics of these scenarios, e.g., temperature fluctuations, noise, and large amounts of metal surfaces and wiring, make it difficult to predict network behavior and therefore network planning and deployment. In this paper we report a 17-month long deployment of 30 wireless sensor nodes in a small data center room, where temperature, humidity and airflow were collected, along with RSSI, LQI, and battery voltage. After an initial unreliable period, a connectivity assessment performed on the network revealed a high noise floor in some of the nodes, which together with a default low CCA threshold triggered no packet transmissions, yielding a low PDR for those nodes. Increasing the CCA setting and relocating the sink allowed the network to achieve a reliability of 99.2% for the last eight months of the deployment, therefore complying with the project requirements. This highlights the necessity of using proper tools and dependable protocols, and defining design methodologies for managing and deploying WSNs in real-world environments.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationFAILSAFE 2017 - Proceedings of the 1st ACM International Workshop on the Engineering of Reliable, Robust, and Secure Embedded Wireless Sensing Systems, Part of SenSys 2017
EditorsRasit Eskicioglu
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages24-31
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781450354820
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Nov 2017
Externally publishedYes
Event1st ACM International Workshop on the Engineering of Reliable, Robust, and Secure Embedded Wireless Sensing Systems, FAILSAFE 2017 - Delft, Netherlands
Duration: 5 Nov 2017 → …

Publication series

NameFAILSAFE 2017 - Proceedings of the 1st ACM International Workshop on the Engineering of Reliable, Robust, and Secure Embedded Wireless Sensing Systems, Part of SenSys 2017

Conference

Conference1st ACM International Workshop on the Engineering of Reliable, Robust, and Secure Embedded Wireless Sensing Systems, FAILSAFE 2017
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityDelft
Period5/11/17 → …

Keywords

  • Low-power Wireless Communications
  • Wireless Sensor Networks

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