Contributors: Mareca Hatler, Darryl Gurganious

Pages: 26 (30 figures, 1 table)

Table of Contents

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Perpetual Power Solutions
Healthcare
Smart Homes
802.15.4 & ZigBee
AMI & Demand Response
Smart Industries
Oil & Gas
Smart Buildings
Smart Crops

*Included at no charge with the WSN Power Set

Synopsis:

To become widespread, wireless crop monitoring systems must be easy-to-use, have long power lifetimes, and provide solid data reliability. In this Technology PowerShot, we provide a succinct snapshot of this growing market including end user adoption trends, competing alternatives, and 25 software generated scenarios to illustrate the power consumption and performance of common wireless sensor network platforms. The technologies we evaluated in this report include ZigBee; IEEE802.15.4 with Xmesh, TSMP, Sampled Listening; and WiFi.

Only through in-depth knowledge of your competitors' strengths and weaknesses can you develop a winning business strategy. ON World's software tool, the wsnSimulator™, normalizes the application (transmission rate, payload, attached sensors, and duty cycles) in order to compare common WSN technologies used for end nodes, routers, and controllers.

Reasons to buy this report:

This report will provide you with unbiased insight on the range, power lifetime, and costs of your nearest competitors, potential partners, or investments. For manufacturers, software developers, component suppliers, and investors, this report provides the following:

* Verify the strengths of your technology to convince potential partners, customers and investors

* Evaluate potential partners and suppliers

* Conduct due diligence on potential investments

* Define your company's differentiators and streamline product development

Primary Research:

This market shot report is based on the following research:

End Users
36 phone interviews with managers and executives of leading North American vineyards and farms

Vendors/Experts
Recent interviews with dozens of WSN systems providers, software developers and suppliers

Report Overview:

State of the Market

* Adoption trends including market data from our recent survey with agriculture managers and executives

* Competing alternatives analysis and matrix to compare the following platforms: 802.15.4, proprietary, WiFi, and cellular

* Key user requirements analysis and ranking charts

*Technology advances analysis including areas such as power mangement and energy harvesting.

Power/Performance Simulations:

One of the challenges that researchers and developers have with WSN is testing the enormous amount and variations of wireless sensing components and modules that make up a WSN node.  In order to better analyze the power and performance needs of individual nodes in specific applications, ON World created the wsnSimulator™.  This simulator interchanges WSN node hardware components, payloads, processors, sensors, harvesters, and batteries while factoring in unique operational parameters for each of the fore mentioned parts. 

The wsnSimulator™ runs these virtual hardware nodes within one of several WSN networks such as ZigBee, 802.15.4, TSMP, Z-Wave, WiFi, and proprietary platforms. It factors in neighborhood nodes and overlapping networks to analyze transmission collisions, latency, and dropped packets among other network factors. With this tool we have the capability of simulating advanced multi thousand node WSN deployments as well as single node controllers, gateways and end nodes.

The simulation tests for this report include the following:

• Radios/protocols: IEEE802.15.4 with Xmesh, TSMP, Sampled Listening; ZigBee; and WiFi
• Devices: end nodes, routers, and controllers
  
• Power management techniques: node synchronization, beaconing, Sampled Listening
• Average power and power distribution
• Battery life with attached sensors
• Effect of number of transmission per hour
• Required battery size
• Required energy harvesting
• Effect of crop obstructions on range
• Power source (batteries/energy harvesters) costs per year

Summary

State of the Market
Adoption Trends
Competing Alternatives
Key User Requirements
Technology Advances
Power Management
Energy Harvesting

Simulations
General Test Set-Up
Range
End Nodes and Routers
Power
Transmit Rate Lifetime
Batteries
Harvesters
Costs
Controllers
Power
Transmit Rate Lifetime
Batteries
Harvesters
Costs
Appendix A: Test Specifications
Device Type Variations
Sensor Setup
Radio Setup

List of Figures

Figure 1: Wireless Sensors Currently Deployed
Figure 2: Current Wireless Sensor Applications
Figure 3: End Node Power Sources by Percentage
Figure 4: Smart Crops – WSN Key User Requirements
Figure 5: Smart Crops – User Requirement Ranked by Technology
Figure 6: Range vs Obstructions Outdoor Space
Figure 7: End Node - Average Power
Figure 8: Router - Average Power
Figure 9: End Node - Power Distribution
Figure 10: Router - Power Distribution
Figure 11: End Node - AA(2) Battery Life in Years vs Transmission Rate
Figure 12: Router - AA(2) Battery Life in Years vs Transmission Rate
Figure 13: End Node - Battery Types Lifetime Yearly
Figure 14: Router - Battery Types Lifetime Yearly
Figure 15: End Node - Light(outdoor) Required Harvester Size
Figure 16: Router - Light(outdoor) Required Harvester Size
Figure 17: End Node - Battery AA(2) vs Harvester Light(outdoor) Cost Per Year
Figure 18: Router - Battery AA(2) vs Harvester Light(outdoor) Cost Per Year
Figure 19: Controller - Node Average Power
Figure 20: Beacon Controller - Node Average Power
Figure 21: Controller - Node Power Distribution
Figure 22: Beacon Controller - Node Power Distribution
Figure 23: Controller - D(3) Battery Life in Years vs Transmission Rate
Figure 24: Beacon Controller - D(3) Battery Life in Years vs Transmission Rate
Figure 25: Controller - Battery Types Lifetime Yearly
Figure 26: Beacon Controller Battery Types Lifetime Yearly
Figure 27: Controller - Light(outdoor) Required Harvester Size
Figure 28: Beacon Controller - Light(outdoor) Required Harvester Size
Figure 29: Controller - Battery D(3) vs Harvester Light(outdoor)
Figure 30: Beacon Controller Battery D(3) vs Harvester Light(outdoor)

List of Tables

Table 1: Smart Crops - WSN Products Compared