Suvendi Rimer

Experimental evaluation of NFC reliability between an RFID tag and a smartphone

Near Field Communication (NFC) is a short range wireless technology that enables data transfer between two NFC devices. It is derived from Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. However, NFC only operates at 13.56MHz frequency while RFID operates at both 125KHz and 13.56MHz frequencies. The success of NFC in replacing contact cards in payment systems can be duplicated in other industries. It is very critical that the operation of NFC is well understood so that future applications can make life easier for the users. The main purpose of this paper is to find out the parameters that can affect the optimal operation of passive NFC devices.

Wireless sensor networks and advanced metering infrastructure deployment in smart grid

The increasing demand for has necessitated the introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the development of the smart grid. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are contributing technologies. In this paper, a review on AMI and WSN in the smart grid is carried out. Also, the introduction of WSNs with AMI in the in-home energy management system of the smart grid is also presented with challenges faced in the deployment of WSNs for the smart grid. The low power and low-cost nature of WSN has presented itself as a technology that can be used with AMI and smart home appliances in achieving home energy management within the great goal of the smart grid.

A foliage scatter model to determine topology of wireless sensor network

Applications of low cost wireless sensor networks (WSN) in precision agriculture is gaining popularity because of the ability of sensors to provide site-specific data over a variable field. Wireless communication between nodes is impeded by the surrounding vegetation of the plants being monitored. To guarantee reliable communication between sensor nodes, the initial node density and topology of a WSN application has to consider the increased foliage of a mature plant. In this paper we propose a model for deployment of wireless nodes based on experimental results that takes into account the scattering effect of surrounding foliage on the wireless signal.

Evaluating effect of foliage on link reliability of wireless signal

Applications of low cost wireless sensor nodes in precision agriculture are being gradually adopted by commercial agricultural cooperatives as part of the continuing industrialisation of commercial agriculture. Current applications require extensive testing and experimentation to ensure reliable message transmission, because the transmitted wireless signal is scattered by the surrounding foliage. Network topology and node density is not optimized. In this paper, experiments to determine the effect of surrounding vegetation on the wireless signal in terms of link reliability, and signal strength for three different types of agricultural crops, namely, ground foliage, medium height and density vegetation, and very dense types of foliage is analyzed and discussed. The objective is to demonstrate that current radio propagation foliage loss models are not optimised for use in precision agriculture.

Review of Power Line Communications Standards in Africa

The standards in power line communications (PLC) calibrate parameters such as frequencies allocation, signal level, security, topology of the network and many others parameters. The leap forward of power line communications technology is motivated by the willingness of the standardization organizations (SDO)s such as ITU, IEC, ISO, IEEE, CENELEC to define how the technologies are going to be deployed. This paper presents the different SDOs, Alliances and groups regulating the PLC sector. The interoperability and coexistence for some technologies are underlined. The process of developing PLC standards by ITU, IEEE 1901, CENELEC is described. The advantages and disadvantages of using PLC technology in Africa are discussed.

Smart water leakage detection and metering device

Water is a scarce and valuable resource hence proper management of this resource is essential for social and economic development of any country because it is an input to almost all production in key sectors like Agriculture, Industry, Energy and Transport. Smart devices have transformed nearly every aspect of our home and this paper is presenting a practical low-cost Smart Water Meter Device which is capable of determining possible leakages in the customers property and reporting current household water consumption levels in real time. Flow meter sensors have been deployed to measure the quantity of water consumer by a consumer. In turn, the flow rates and the amount of litres consumed will be displayed on the LCD display and they will also be sent through the GSM/GPRS module to the website. The system has been efficiently and carefully designed to minimise commercial losses.

Smart homes : energy efficiency based on demand side management and game theoretic algorithm

The smart home is an integral part of future energy management and control. The reduction of domestic energy consumption and improved energy efficiency of households will require intelligent systems that constantly monitor the household electricity usage and provides realtime updates to the user. This will lead to a bill reduction for households and energy efficiency. In this paper we investigate two concepts, namely; (i) the effect of a demand side management system, where a smart meter prototype was provided to each household depicting detailed and real-time information to the user, and (ii) a Game theoretic algorithm to manage and minimize the daily electricity expenditure and improve the energy efficiency of the domestic household. Computational results and data are provided and discussed that determine which system would work the best.

Effective energy consumption scheduling in smart homes

Monthly expenditure on electricity by most households in South Africa take beyond acceptable percentage of their income. In order to keep the household energy expenditure below the energy poverty threshold, a daily electricity optimization problem is formulated using mixed integer linear programming (MILP) method. The energy optimization scheduling was carried out by a device called the Daily Maximum Energy Scheduling (DMES) device proposed to be incorporated into smart meters of households. The DMES algorithm was tested with household data set and was shown to be capable of ensuring that households spend less than 10% of their income on electricity bill monthly. This technique therefore, would be beneficial to consumers (for better financial savings and planning), utility (for effective energy and financial savings, and energy network planning) and cleaner environments as proposed for smart grid. Also, number of households in the nation living below the energy expenditure-based poverty threshold would increase.

Mobile Sink Wireless Underground Sensor Communication Monitor

Mine disasters claim thousands of human lives and cause millions of property loss every year. The safety of the mine worker is of paramount importance in any underground environment. Advances in the development of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) for monitoring infrastructure health, and environmental conditions provide end users with the benefit of low-cost installation, maintenance and scalability. This paper will investigate the challenges around a development of a real-time mine monitoring system using wireless sensor nodes to prevent mine disasters such as gas explosions or mine collapses. We propose a mobile, real-time gateway that will be able to process data collected from static wireless sensor nodes monitoring underground infrastructure, to prevent underground disasters.

Smart Meter Data Collection Using Public Taxis

The advent of wireless sensor networks (WSN) has opened up an array of applications. Due to the ad-hoc nature of WSN and the small size of wireless nodes, multiple system configurations are possible. In order to collect data from WSN, some systems utilize static nodes with a network setup that consists of multiple relays to facilitate the dissemination of data to a gateway. Other WSN architectures consist of a mixture of static and mobile nodes. Mobile nodes are able to collect data from the WSN when in close proximity to a static node. Such nodes are referred to as data mules. Data mules presents multiple advantages including the improvement of the network life as communication usually takes place via a single hop. In order to collect smart meter data, we propose the usage of mini-bus taxis carrying a data collector node as an alternative to traditional GSM models where data collected is directly uploaded from a data concentrator to a server. Using the vast network of mini-bus taxis in South Africa, data collection in areas lacking GSM network will be possible. This paper will attempt to present all the relevant parameters required for such data collection scheme to be successful.