Real Time Monitoring and Control of Wireless Networks

Adhoc sensor networks consists of dense wireless network having tiny, low-cost sensor nodes which collect the environmental data and send it to the base station. Using such networks helps in monitoring and control of physical environments remotely with ease and accuracy. Examples include military applications, and acquiring sensing information from inhospitable locations like thick forests, active volcano regions etc. Since the devices will be battery powered and are scattered in a complex network, It is very difficult to locate each node, know about its status and how the devices are connected in the wireless network. Because of their increased importance and applications, wireless networks are becoming part and parcel of our day to day life, and hence the need of developing a system to visualise , control and monitor such networks arises. This paper presents implementation issues and author's contribution to design and implement a generic framework of the 'Network Visualization tool' to monitor adhoc wireless networks. The paper also elaborates system architecture, hardware and software organizations, and integration details of the proposed system with an exemplary wireless network based on standard IEEE 802.15.4 MAC protocol[1] to monitor temperature of different rooms in a house.