Toward Integrated Real-World Sensing Environment — Applications and Challenges

Abstract

Growing popularity of wireless sensor network (WSN) applications andmachine-to-machine (M2M) communication has recently led to emergence ofa new class of network traffic. The communication between thingsintroduces network traffic characteristics very different fromtraditional human-centric communication. As more WSN and M2M servicesare expected to use mobile network as a backhaul, it is important tounderstand the impact that their traffic will have on the radio accessnetwork. WCDMA radio access networks are dimensioned using trafficmodels containing traffic characteristics for a number of servicesoffered by the operators and their networks today. In this chapter, thepotential capacity impact of several selected sensor-based applicationson the WCDMA radio access network, both dedicated and common channels,is presented. The results thus far have shown that currently 3G mobilenetworks can successfully cope with the new WSN traffic. With theincrease of WSN traffic, optimizations of protocols and solutions willbe required and radio bearer mapping can be a deciding factor indetermining the size of the radio access network and the requiredresources.