Course detail

Wireless Sensor Networks

FEKT-MPA-SSYAcad. year: 2025/2026

The course focuses in practice and provides students with knowledge and experience in the field of wireless sensor networks and their applications. Students will learn to work with wireless sensor units equipped with microcontrollers and radio chips during the semester, using the IEEE 802.15.4 communication protocol, protocols using this standard, and the Bluetooth LE protocol. Part of the subject is the design and implementation of their own protocol, implementation of the wireless sensor network and its integration into the Internet of Things network. In the last part of the course the students will be acquainted with the possibilities of sensor unit design, power supply and sensing of physical quantities sensors.

Language of instruction

English

Number of ECTS credits

5

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

Ing. Ondřej Krajsa, Ph.D.

Department

Department of Telecommunications (UTKO)

Entry knowledge

The subject knowledge on the Bachelor´s degree level is requested.

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

Up to 100 points can be earned while studying the course. Up to 30 points can be obtained as part of the laboratory exercises for defending the project. The scourse ends with an exam, where up to 60 points can be obtained for the written part and 10 points for the oral part. 

The content and forms of instruction in the evaluated course are specified by a regulation issued by the lecturer responsible for the course and updated for every academic year.

Aims

This subject is aimed at making the students familiar with the representative sensor systems, with their components and their practical exploitation. The students will obtain a fundamental theoretical orientation in the area of modern sensor technology and they will acquire some skills in design procedures by way of solving practical examples.
The students obtain knowledge about the wireless sensors, which are used in the home, building and transport automation- They will work with the Zigbee protocol and Atmel wireless nodes.

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

GUTIERREZ, Jose A, Ludwig WINKEL, Edgar H CALLAWAY a Raymond L BARRETT. Low-rate wireless personal area networks: enabling wireless sensors with IEEE 802.15.4. 3rd ed. Piscataway, N.J.]: IEEE Press, 2010, xxxiii, 245 s. : il. ISBN 978-0-7381-6285-0 (EN)
KUORILEHTO, Mauri. Ultra-low energy wireless sensor networks in practice: theory, realization and deployment. Chichester: John Wiley, 2007, xxiii, 372 s. : il. ISBN 978-0-470-05786-5. (EN)

Recommended reading

MORTON, John. AVR: an introductory course. Oxford: Newnes, 2002, vii, 241 s. : il. ISBN 0-7506-5635-2. (EN)

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme MPAD-CAN Master's 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional
  • Programme MPAD-CAN Master's 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory-optional

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

26 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Ing. Ondřej Krajsa, Ph.D.

Syllabus

1. WSN technology, basic architecture of AVR microprocessors, available peripherals, AVR memory space - FLASH memory, SRAM memory, EEPROM memory. Interrupts. ARM processors. Basics of working with registers 2. Serial data transfer. USART bus, communication parameters, configuration. SPI bus, basic characteristics, device interfacing, parameters, configuration. I2C bus, basic characteristics, device addressing, parameters, configuration. 3. Timer basics, overflow counter principle, interrupt counter principle. Counter resolution. Pulse-width modulation, alternation. 4. ADCs, sampling, quantization, coding, quantization error. Principle of AD converter with successive approximation. Converter error, zeroing error, gain error, integral and differential nonlinearity. ADC configuration in AVR. 5. Principle of radio signal propagation through the environment, power level of received signal and its dependence on distance, description of logarithmic attenuation model, conversion of dBm to mW, effect of frequency on power level of signal, antenna gain, quarter-wave antennas. 6. IEEE 802.15 standard and its distribution. Physical layer according to IEEE 802.15.4, frequency bands used, modulation, transmission rates. Issues of coexistence of IEEE 802.15.4 standard with other wireless technologies. Energy detection on the channel, RSSI parameter, LQI parameter, frame format on the physical layer of IEEE 802.15.4 7. Link layer according to IEEE 802.15.4 , frame format, superframe structure, device types, inter frame intervals, synchronized and unsynchronized CSMA/CA method. Network provisions. LightWeight Mesh Protocol. 8. Zigbee protocol, network layer, NWK frame format, routing in mesh network using AODV, routing in tree structure. Application layer of Zigbee protocol, application profiles, endpoints, communication security, application layer frame structure. 9. Wireless HART protocols, ISA100.11a standard, Bluetooth Low Energy. Localization of wireless nodes, energy consumption during data transmission. 10. Wireless sensor unit architecture, sensor unit design, power supply options. 11. Design of custom protocol over network layer. 12. Modern protocols for Internet of Things.

Laboratory exercise

26 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

Ing. Ondřej Krajsa, Ph.D.

Syllabus

1. C language, working with registers, controlling IO ports 2. Serial data transfer, interrupts 3. Timers, A/D conversion 4. I2C, SPI, sensor control 5. LightWeight Mesh 6. - 12. Project