Time-synchronized Wireless Sensor Network for structural health monitoring applications in railway environments

Abstract

In this work a time-synchronized Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) has been designed and implemented for a realtime Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system for trains. Channel measurements have been done in the first place on a real operational scenario, and obtained results have been used as inputs for the design of the physical layer of the WSN. A specific Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) MAC layer and a synchronization algorithm have also been developed for allowing a deterministic data collection and synchronized sampling, which are critical aspects in SHM applications. Performance measurements of the WSN have also been done, which have shown maximum sampling synchronization jitter values within 1 μs for sensor nodes belonging the same base station, and maximum jitter values within 2 μs for nodes of different base stations.