A new method for gaining the control of standalone underwater sensor nodes based on power supply sensing

Abstract

In this paper, a new method for gaining the control of standalone underwater sensor nodes based on sensing the power supply evolution is presented. Underwater sensor networks are designed to support multiple extreme scenarios such as network disconnections. In those cases, the sensor nodes involved should go into standalone, and its wired and wireless communications should be disabled. This paper presents how to exit from the standalone status and enter into debugging mode following a practical ultra-low power design methodology. In addition, the discharge and regeneration effects are analyzed and modeled to minimize the error using the sensor node self measurements. Once the method is presented, its implementation details are discussed including other solutions like wake up wireless modules or a pin interruption solution. Its advantages and disadvantages are discussed. The method proposed is evaluated with several simulations and laboratory experiments using a real aquaculture sensor node. Finally, all the results obtained demonstrate the usefulness of our new method to gain the control of a standalone sensor node. The proposal is better than other approaches when the hibernation time is longer than 167.45 µs. Finally, our approach requires two orders of magnitude less energy than the best practical solution.