Unconventional communication channels for smart sensors networking

摘要

Smart sensors are largely employed in monitoring and control networks in various application domains. The main characteristic of this kind of devices is the ability of sending data exploiting, usually, a wireless communication channel. Several standards and technologies have been developed for the data transmission, characterized by different frequency bands, modulations and protocols. The choice of the communication technology depends on the network requirements in terms of bandwidth, latency, coverage range and the cost of infrastructure deploying. A different approach can be taken into account considering the applications in which the sensors are placed near steel pipeline networks, as an example in water and gas monitoring systems. In these cases, the steel pipelines can be used as communication channel avoiding the installation of a dedicated data transmission infrastructure. Some research works have already explored the possibility to transmit data over steel pipelines, focusing on specific applications. In this work, a novel approach is proposed focusing on the channel characterization, in order to optimize the transmission performances regardless the application. The preliminary results show the channel characterization in terms of characteristic impedance and frequency response of an underground steel pipeline.