Proceedings of the 20th World Congress

Proceedings of the
The International 20th World
Federation of Congress
Automatic Control
The International
Proceedings
Toulouse, France, Federation
of the 20th9-14,
July Worldof Congress
Automatic
2017 Control
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
The International
Toulouse, France,Federation of Automatic Control
July 9-14, 2017
Toulouse, France, July 9-14, 2017
ScienceDirect
IFAC PapersOnLine 50-1 (2017) 12944–12949
Data Lifecycle Management in Smart Building using Wireless Sensors Networks
Data Lifecycle Management in Smart Building using Wireless Sensors Networks
Data Lifecycle Management in Smart Building using Wireless Sensors Networks
Kais Mekki, William Derigent, Eric Rondeau, André Thomas
 Kais Mekki, William Derigent, Eric Rondeau, André Thomas
 Kais Mekki, William Derigent, Eric Rondeau, André Thomas
 Research Centre for Automatic Control of Nancy, CNRS UMR 7039, Campus Sciences, BP 70239,
Research Centre for Automatic Control of Nancy,Cedex,
Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy CNRS UMR
54506,7039, Campus Sciences, BP 70239,
France.
Research Centre for Automatic Control of Nancy,Cedex,
Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy CNRS UMR
54506,7039, Campus Sciences, BP 70239,
France.
{kais.mekki, william.derigent, eric.rondeau, andre.thomas}@univ-lorraine.fr
Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy
{kais.mekki, william.derigent, Cedex,andre.thomas}@univ-lorraine.fr
eric.rondeau, 54506, France.
{kais.mekki, william.derigent, eric.rondeau, andre.thomas}@univ-lorraine.fr
Abstract: A new area is coming with communicating materials able to provide diverse functionalities to
Abstract:
users all along A new the area
productis coming
lifecycle, with communicating
during the design, materials
manufacturing,able touse provide diverse functionalities
and dismantling phases. These to
Abstract:
users all A new
along the area
productis coming
lifecycle, with communicating
during the design, materials
manufacturing,able touse provide
and diverse functionalities
dismantling phases. These to
materials
users can track
all along their own
the product evolution
lifecycle, all along
during the product
the design, lifetime, gather
manufacturing, use and helpful information
dismantling phases. andThese
thus
materials
allow can track
information their own
continuum evolution
at all time alland
along the product
everywhere. lifetime,these
Usually, gather helpful
functionalities information
are and thus
fulfilled via
materials
allow can track continuum
information their own evolution
at all time alland
along the productUsually,
everywhere. lifetime,thesegather helpful information
functionalities are RFID and thus
fulfilled via
the
allow integration
information of specific
continuum electronic
at all time components into
and everywhere. the material (wireless
Usually, (wireless sensors
these functionalities nodes,
are RFID
fulfilled tags).
via
the integration of specific electronic components into the material
The present paper forms part of this framework in considering that thousands of micro-sensor nodes are sensors nodes, tags).
the
Theintegration
presentinto of specific
paper forms part electronic
of thisData componentsininto
framework the material
considering that (wireless
thousands sensors nodes, RFID tags).
integrated a precast concrete. management in the integrated sensorofnodes micro-sensor
requires nodes Wireless are
The present
integrated paper
into a forms
precast part of
concrete. this framework
Data management in considering
in the that thousands
integrated sensor of micro-sensor
nodes requires nodes
Wireless are
Sensor Network (WSN) protocols development. We recently developed a data storage protocol, called
integrated
Sensor into a (WSN)
precast protocols
concrete. development.
Data managementrecently in the integrated sensor
a data nodes requires Wireless
USEE, Network
for communicating materials. To extractWe this information,developedwe recently storage
developed protocol,
also acalleddata
Sensor
USEE, Network (WSN) protocols development. We recently developed a data storage protocol, called
retrieval protocol, called RaWPG. In this paper, the performances of these protocols are evaluated aondata
for communicating materials. To extract this information, we recently developed also the
USEE,
retrieval for communicating
protocol, called concrete materials.
RaWPG. In this Topaper,
extract thethis information,
performances of we
theserecently
protocols developed
are evaluated also aondata the
case study
retrieval of the precast
protocol, called RaWPG. lifecycle
In this management.
paper, the performances of these protocols are evaluated on the
case study of the precast concrete lifecycle management.
© 2017,
case study
Keywords: IFACof (International
the
Lifecycleprecast Federation
concrete
Management, of Automatic
lifecycle
Smart management.
Building, Control)
WirelessHosting
SensorsbyNetworks,
Elsevier Ltd. DataAllStorage/Retrieval.
rights reserved.
Keywords: Lifecycle Management, Smart Building, Wireless Sensors Networks, Data Storage/Retrieval.
Keywords: Lifecycle Management, Smart Building,  Wireless Sensors Networks, Data Storage/Retrieval.
 CERIB company (www.cerib.com) on collaboration with the
1. INTRODUCTION  CERIB company
1. INTRODUCTION “Research Centre(www.cerib.com)
for Automatic Control on collaboration
of Nancy” withusesthe
CERIB
“Research company
Centre (www.cerib.com)
for Automatic on collaboration
Control of Nancy” withusesthe
1. INTRODUCTION
Concrete’s versatility, durability, and economy have made it RFID in the concrete for traceability in the supply chain
Concrete’s “Research
RFID in theCentre
concrete for Automatic
for traceabilityControl in of
the Nancy”
supply uses
chain
the world’sversatility,
most useddurability,
construction and material.
economy The have concrete
made it (Albin, 2014): concrete beams were instrumented by
Concrete’s
the world’s versatility,
most used durability,
construction and material.
economy The made it RFID
have concrete (Albin,in 2014):
the concrete
two concrete
for traceability
beams on were
in the supply chain
each instrumented by
construction companies mainly follow two strategies: i) Local integrating (Albin,
integrating 2014):
two
RFID tags
concrete
RFID tagsbeams on were
each
end. Then, CE
instrumented
end. Then, by
CE
the world’s
construction most
companiesused construction material. The concrete
concrete fabrication: themainly
concrete follow two strategies:
is produced i) Local information has been stored in the memory of these tags,
on construction integrating two RFID tags on each end. Then, CE
construction
concrete companies
fabrication: mainly
thesite
concrete follow two strategies:
is produced on raw i) Local informationthe
construction haschances
been stored in the memory isofnot these
losttags,
site via formwork, the is delivered only in material increasing
information
increasing haschances
the been stored
that such
that
information
in the
such memory isofnot
information these
and
losttags,
and
concrete
site via fabrication:the
formwork, thesite
concrete
is is produced
delivered only on raw
in construction
material
(granula, cement, adjuvant, etc.) and scrap. ii) Precast still available throughout the supply chain.
increasing
still available thethroughout
chances that the suchsupply information
chain. is not lost and
site via formwork,
(granula, cement, the site is delivered
adjuvant, etc.) and only in raw
scrap. ii) material
Precast
concrete
(granula, fabrication: all construction
cement, adjuvant, etc.) elements
and scrap. (beams, floors, still available throughout the supply chain.
ii) Precast
concrete fabrication: all construction elements (beams, floors, However, the idea used in these two examples consists in
bearing
concrete walls, pillars,
fabrication: etc.)
all are factory
construction away
elements from the
(beams, site and However, the idea used in these two examples consists in
floors,
bearing walls, pillars, etc.) are factory away from the site and integrating sensor nodes and RFID tags in some part of the
brought to the site to be implemented quickly. However, the ideanodesused and in these two examplessome consists in
bearing
brought walls, pillars,
to the site to be etc.) away from the site and integrating
are factoryquickly.
implemented precast concrete. sensor This could RFIDto
lead tags
two inproblems: parti) of the
If the
the
integrating
precast sensorThis
concrete. nodes and lead
could RFIDtotags two inproblems:
some parti) of If the
brought
For reasons to theofsite to and
cost be implemented
time, the choice quickly.is take up mostly precast precast exceeds
concrete.the Thishumancouldscale. lead It istwocommon to find some
For reasons of cost and time, the choice is take up mostly precast
buildings exceeds
beams the
or human
concrete scale. Ittoisof
slabs common
tens
problems: to find
meters
i) If
some
(even
the
a
toward the precast concrete. Indeed, as it was described in precast buildings exceeds the human
beams orIt concrete scale. It
slabs is common
of tens to
meters find some
(even toa
For
towardreasons
the of costconcrete.
precast and time,Indeed, the choice as it iswas
takedescribed
up mostly in hundred meters). is then difficult for the operator
one of the four roles of construction management (Vrijhoef, buildings beams orIt concrete slabs of tens meters (even toa
toward
one of Wethe four
the precast concrete. Indeed, as it was described in hundred meters). is then difficult for (over
the operator
2000): mustroles
transfer of construction
the activitiesmanagement
of the earlier(Vrijhoef,
building systematically
hundred
systematically meters).
go through
It is then
all the building
difficult for the
100 meters
operator to
one of We
2000): the four
mustroles
site in the chain. transfer of construction
These avoid the activities
the climate
management
of the earlierin
change
(Vrijhoef,
building
the site for example) togo through
identify its all the buildingor(over
characteristics 100 meters
by searching for
systematically
for example) go through
to identify all the building (over 100 meters
2000):
site
and in We chain.
the
conduct
must transfer
Theseofavoid
a number
the activities
parallel
of the
theoperations.
climate earlier building
change
With in the site
precast, it the tags containing the itsinformation.
characteristics ii) orWhenby searching
the precast for
site
and in the chain.
conduct a Theseofavoid
number paralleltheoperations.
climate change With in the site
precast, it for
the example)
tags to identify
containing the itsinformation.
characteristics ii) or
Whenby searching
the for
precast
is possible toaimprove the construction site in With
place,precast,
time and concrete is used and installed inside the building, it is
and
is conduct
possible number
to improve of parallel
the construction operations.
site States
in place, timeabout it the tags
concrete containing
is used and the information.
installed
and difficult to localize and access to the RFID tags inside the inside ii) When
the the
building, precast
it is
quality.
is possible Actually
to as example,
improve the the United
construction site in place, uses
time and concrete
difficult is
to used
localize andand installed
access toinside
the the
RFID building,
tags inside it is
the
quality. Actually
cubic as example, the United States
eachusesyear.about
It is precast. iii) The RFID
260 million
quality. Actually as
meters
example,
of precast
the
concrete
United States uses about difficult
precast. to localize
iii) The RFID andtechnologies
access to theare
technologies are
limited
RFID
limited tagsin
in
memory,
inside
memory, the
260
used million cubic meters
in highways, streets,of precast
parkingconcrete each year.
lots, parking It is thus using one or two tags could not allow large information
garages,
260
used million
in cubic meters
highways, streets,of precast
parking concrete
lots, each year.
parking It is precast.
garages, thus using iii)one
TheorRFIDtwo tags technologies
could not are allow limited
large in memory,
information
bridges, high-rise buildings, dams, homes, floors, sidewalks, storage. thus using one or two tags could not allow large information
used
bridges,in high-rise
highways,buildings,
streets, parkinghomes, lots, floors, garages, storage.
parkingsidewalks,
driveways, and many other dams, applications (Kosmatka et al., storage.
bridges,
driveways, high-rise
and buildings,
many other dams, homes, (Kosmatka
applications floors, sidewalks,et al., For this reason, another applications aim to fully integrate
2003).
driveways, and many other applications (Kosmatka et al., For
2003). RFIDthis tagsreason,
in precastanotherconcreteapplications
to allow aim to fully
accessing integrate
information
2003). For
RFID this
tags reason,
in precastanotherconcreteapplications
to allow aim to fully
accessing integrate
information
In recent years, a new research area has appeared for from RFID
each part of building. In (Kalansuriya et al., 2013), the
tags in precast concrete to allow accessing information
In recent precast
improving years, aconcretenew research
in logisticarea chain,hastraceability
appeared and for from RFIDeach tags part of building.
are placed uniformly In (Kalansuriya
in the surface et al.,
of the2013),
precastthe
In recent precast
improving years, aconcretenew research
in logistic area
chain,hastraceability
appeared and for from RFID each
tags part
are of building.
placed uniformly In (Kalansuriya
in the surface et al.,
of 2013),
the precastthe
security using RFID and sensor nodeschain,
technology. In 2007, to take a first step towards automatic detection of cracks. The
improving
security precast concrete in logistic traceability and RFID
to take tags
a are
first placed
step uniformly
towards automatic in the surface
detection of
of the precast
cracks. The
BizzDev using company RFID(www.bizzdev.com)
and sensor nodes technology. designed aInsystem 2007, cracks are detected when some tags are damaged. In
security
BizzDev using
company RFID(www.bizzdev.com)
and sensor nodes technology. designed a 2007, to
Insystem take aare
cracks firstdetected
step towards when automatic
some detection
tags are of cracks. The
damaged. In
composed of two parts: a temperature sensors node is directly (Lafarge, cracks
(Lafarge, are 2013),
detected
2013),
Lafarge
when
Lafarge
company
some
company tags (www.lafarge.com)
are damaged.
(www.lafarge.com) In
BizzDev
composed company (www.bizzdev.com) designed a system
embedded of in two
the parts:
precast a temperature
and RFID tag sensors
in itsnode is directly
surface. The integrated
(Lafarge, RFID
2013), tagsLafarge
directly into the concrete
company for traceability
(www.lafarge.com)
composed
embedded of two parts:
concrete isin the precast
therefore
a temperature
and RFID
able
sensors
tag
to deliver in itsnode
its surface.
temperature The integrated
is directly application.RFID Thetags RFID directlytagsinto arethedisseminated
concrete for traceability
in all the
embedded
concrete in the
is precastable
therefore and RFID to tag in its
deliver its surface.
temperature The integrated
application.
building
RFIDThe
concrete
tags
RFID
at
directly
number tags into
ofare
4
thedisseminated
or
concrete for traceability
5 tags every in 2 all
m33 the
on
continuously over time for supervising application. Also, application. The RFID tags ofare4 or disseminated
5 tags everyin 2 all m3 theon
concrete is over
continuously therefore
time able to deliver application.
for supervising its temperature Also, building concrete at number
3
continuously over time for supervising application. Also, building concrete at number of 4 or 5 tags every 2 m on
Copyright
2405-8963 ©© 2017,
2017 IFAC 13486
IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright
Peer review©under
2017 responsibility
IFAC 13486
of International Federation of Automatic Control.
Copyright © 2017 IFAC 13486
10.1016/j.ifacol.2017.08.1796
 Proceedings of the 20th IFAC World Congress
Toulouse, France, July 9-14, 2017 Kais Mekki et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 50-1 (2017) 12944–12949 12945
average. The ID of tags could then be readied in each part of
the building. Using this ID, the operators could access to all
the needed information about the concrete (e.g. constructor,
date, technical characteristic, etc.) through an external
associated database.
The nature of both previous applications is limited. It is a
simple identification of RFID tags and a consultation of
concrete information from an external database.
In this paper, we define new services for a potential
“communicating precast concrete” which could store
database information directly into its own structure. This
paradigm is developed through thousands of micro-sensor
nodes uniformly integrated in the concrete. Each node could
communicate wirelessly with others inside the concrete.
Thus, the nodes could then construct a Wireless Sensor
Network (WSN) inside the building. Unlike RFID, the
operator could connect to any node in the concrete and
store/read all the information in the building through multi-
hops routing protocol of WSN.
For this issue, new data storage and data retrieval protocols
have recently been developed, called USEE (Mekki et al.,
2016a) (Mekki et al., 2016b) and RaWPG (Mekki et al.,
2016c) respectively. USEE guarantees that each data is
uniformly replicated throughout the WSN inside the concrete.
Thus, information could be read in all parts of the building.
USEE is based on three strategies: counter-based flooding to
forward messages to all nodes in the concrete, message
header field (called NS) which controls the replication rate in
each node’s neighbourhood (i.e. for increasing the storage
capabilities of WSN), and finally probabilistic storage (i.e.
the data is stored with probability P).
To extract and read the stored data, RaWPG is used. RaWPG
is based on Random Walk (RW). The RW (Lima and Barros,
2007) empowers nodes with the ability to efficiently forward
requests hop by hop which only rely on neighbourhood
information. RaWPG empowers RW by adding Pull Gossip
(PG) to query the neighbours in each hop and to increase the
number of covered nodes during the retrieval process. A
mechanism called “farthest neighbours selection” and a link
cost function are added to RaWPG. Only the farthest and
most powerful neighbour is selected as next hop for
improving the reliability of the original random walk process.
Moreover, RaWPG uses a TTL (Time-To-Live) counter
which fixes the maximal number of hops for data retrieval
path. TTL is decremented in each hop. The retrieval process
stop when the data is found or the TTL becomes zero.
In this paper, USEE and RaWPG are used for data
management in WSN during all the precast concrete
lifecycle. Indeed, the instrumentation of the precast is
presented. The performances of these protocols are then
evaluated based on the case study of the precast concrete
lifecycle management.
In the rest of this paper, the lifecycle of precast concrete is
firstly studied. Second, the new paradigm of communicating
precast concrete using micro-sensor networks is presented.
13487
Finally, the performance of USEE and RaWPG are discussed,
based on the case study of the precast concrete lifecycle.
2. PRECAST CONCRETE LIFECYCLE
Precast concrete products are fabricated in a precast
manufacturing plant and conveyed to a work site where they
are erected and assembled. Precast offers economies of scale
and manufacturing in a controlled environment that makes it
economical to achieve high levels of quality control.
The instrumentation of the precast concrete follows physical
requirements (measurements of temperature, humidity, crack
detection, etc.). Moreover, in this paper, the precast must be
able of storing information during its lifecycle. It is therefore
necessary to define the lifecycle of the precast concrete, and
to identify the necessary information for the different actors.
This information can be transmitted by actors, or produced by
the concrete itself through sensors. The precast concrete
lifecycle is conventionally composed in three phases as
shown in figure 1: Beginning Of Life (BOL), Middle Of Life
(MOL), and End Of Life (EOL).
Fig. 1. Precast concrete lifecycle.
2.1. Beginning Of Life
Beginning Of Life (BOL) is the first stage of a precast
concrete’s existence. BOL includes the initial design of the
precast, its fabrication, testing and initial marketing. The
beginning stage finishes when the product is released to the
building constructor as shown in figure 1. A product can fail
at any point through the lifecycle stages. If the precast
concrete is determined not to be feasible during BOL, it is
unlikely to reach the end of that stage. In (Albin, 2014), the
BOL duration is estimated from 1 to 2 years.
2.2. Middle Of Life
The Middle Of Life (MOL) stage is the longest one for
precast concrete. During MOL, a precast becomes established
in the final building. Its eventual decline ultimately leads to
the final end of life (EOL) stage. The success of the MOL
stage is largely determined by BOL decisions. During the
MOL, the integrated electronic components sense the internal
ambient values of the concrete. These values provide useful
way for preventive maintenance. In (Albin, 2014), the MOL
Proceedings of the 20th IFAC World Congress
12946
Toulouse, France, July 9-14, 2017 Kais Mekki et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 50-1 (2017) 12944–12949
duration is estimated for at least 10 years. This period
corresponds to the classic 10-year building warranty (Ong,
1997).
2.3. End Of Life
The End Of Life (EOL) is the final stage of the precast
concrete existence. The building is dismantled and all the
precast concretes are transported to recycler for reuse,
renovation, or recycling. In (Albin, 2014), the EOL duration
is estimated from 1 to 2 years.
2.4. Synthesis
In (Albin, 2014), a previous study on the traceability of
concrete products, conducted with the CERIB company
(www.cerib.com) in collaboration with the “Research Centre
for Automatic Control of Nancy”, finely studied BOL, MOL,
and EOL phases and tried to estimate the quantity of data, the
number of reading/writing operations and the read/write
delay that should be handled by the communicating precast
concrete, all along its lifecycle. Table 1 details the values that
should be fulfilled by the communication precast concrete.
The next section details how the instrumentation of the
communicating concrete should be performed, and the last
one presents the simulation results obtained for such
instrumented concrete. These results should allow the respect
of the requirements below.
Table 1. Data lifecycle overview of precast concrete (Albin, 2014).
Data Results
Total size of data 33686 Bytes
Average size of data 29.02 Bytes
Minimum number of data storage operations 11500
Minimum number of data retrieval operations 11553
Data storage delay < 1 min
Data retrieval delay < 5s
3. INSTRUMENTATION OF THE COMMUNICATING
PRECAST CONCRETE
In this section, the appropriate micro-node is firstly presented
for the communicating precast concrete instrumentation.
Then, a study of the nodes density inside the concrete is
detailed.
3.1. Micro-node for communicating precast concrete
In this paper, the proposed communicating precast concrete is
equipped with micro-sensor nodes which are very small and
could be integrated in a precast without modifying either its
properties or its appearance as shown in figure 2 (i.e. a
uniform nodes deployment is used in the concrete).
Currently, several researches focus on miniaturization of
electronic components for sensor nodes (Kuncoro, 2014)
such as μPart, ECO, ZN1, SAND, SensorCube, and Tyndall.
SAND, μPart, and Tyndall are the micro nodes with the
smallest size (1 cm3). However, μPart node has no reception
13488
functionality (only data transmission node) and does not
allow multi-hop communication. In addition, Tyndall and
SAND are very limited lifetime nodes (in average 10 hours
and 432 hours, respectively) and require continuous battery
charging which seems difficult when the node is embedded in
the concrete.
However, the SensorCube node has several advantages
compared to ZN1 and ECO. First, SensorCube provides
temperature and humidity sensors required by the concrete
monitoring during the BOL and the MOL. Moreover, it
provides good memory size (120 Kbyte), and it can store all
the generated data during the precast concrete lifecycle
(33686 bytes, see table 1). Also, it has the advantage of
providing a packaged system being fully reconfigurable.
Each module has a specific functionality, such as transceiver,
micro-controller, power supply or sensors. Its modular nature
lends itself to the development of a variety of layers for use
in different application scenarios. In addition, the SensorCube
node could be equipped with many different energy resources
such as battery and energy scavenging module, which would
increase its autonomy.
For all these benefits, the SensorCube node was chosen for
communicating precast concrete. In this paper, this node is
modelled in Castalia simulator.
Micro sensor node Wireless connection
Fig. 2. Communicating precast concrete using micro-nodes.
3.2. Nodes density inside the precast concrete
In (Mekki et al., 2016d), the density of nodes inside the
precast concrete is studied for the best performance of
uniform data storage using USEE protocol and for the best
reliability of RaWPG protocol, through statistics and
simulation studies. Authors in (Mekki et al., 2016d) suppose
that if the data is stored at least once in each neighbourhood
in the WSN, the data certainly exist throughout all the
concrete precast (i.e. throughout all the building). They show
that the greater the number of nodes n in each
neighbourhood, the higher the probability of finding the
information in each neighbourhood. The probabilistic study
was validated by simulation. For this, a communicating
precast concrete was simulated. All the nodes are uniformly
deployed within a 20m×20m square. Different numbers of
nodes n in the neighbourhood are simulated: 9, 15, 25, 37,
and 45. Authors show that the disseminated data is present in
all the neighbourhood of almost all the nodes inside the
concrete (more than 80% and 90% of neighbourhoods
contain the data) for storage probabilities more than 0.2 and
for n = 25, n = 37, and n = 45. However, the data existence
 Proceedings of the 20th IFAC World Congress
Toulouse, France, July 9-14, 2017 Kais Mekki et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 50-1 (2017) 12944–12949 12947

probability in the neighbourhood is very low for a small data dissemination which corresponds to a good data
number of neighbours n = 9 (between 31% and 62%) and n = distribution: the information exists in 100% of cells (in all
15 (between 47% and 85%). In conclusion, a large number of parts of the precast concrete) for the storage probability
nodes n in each neighbourhood in the WSN increases the P≥0.3, in 97% of cells for P=0.2, and in 91% of cells for
probability of finding data in all parts of the precast concrete P=0.1.
(i.e. all parts of the building).
As presented in the introduction, RaWPG protocol uses TTL
parameter to limit the retrieval path length. In (Mekki et al.,
2016d), the maximum length of TTL is studied through
statistics tools using the data existence probability in the
neighbourhood as parameter. The path length is studied for
different data existence probabilities ps in neighbourhood.
Authors in (Mekki et al., 2016d) show that for the probability
0.8<ps<1 of n=45, TTL should be fixed to 4. For the Fig. 3. Logical division of the precast concrete into pieces of
probability 0.7<ps<1 of n=37, TTL should be fixed to 5. For 2m×2m.
the probability 0.6<ps<1 of n=25, TTL should be fixed to 8.

4. DATA STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL DURING THE

PRECAST CONCRETE LIFECYCLE
In this section, USEE and RaWPG protocols are evaluated
through simulation on the case study of the precast concrete
lifecycle. In this simulation, the neighbourhood nodes density
n=25 and TTL=8 are used as recommended in (Mekki et al.,
2016d) for the best performance of USEE and RaWPG.

4.1. Simulation parameters
The protocols were implemented in Castalia simulator. The
simulated precast concrete consists of 2500 nodes. All the
node positions are uniformly distributed within a 20m×20m
square (n = 25 nodes in each neighbourhood). T-MAC, a
contention-based medium access control protocol is used as
MAC protocol. Wireless radio channel characteristics such as
signal noise, interference ratio, and average path loss are
chosen to simulate the realistic modelled radio wireless
channel in Castalia based on lognormal shadowing and the
additive interference models. The maximum size of each data
is fixed to 30 bytes (i.e. 30 bytes = average lifecycle data size
as shown in table 1).
Fig. 4. Uniformity and quality of data distribution of USEE.
4.2.2. Storage capacity of the precast concrete
In this section, we evaluate the storage memory capacity of
the WSN throughout the precast concrete lifecycle. Figure 5
shows that USEE reaches 27000 storage process in the WSN
inside the precast concrete. Using USEE, the WSN could thus
execute all the 11500 storage process during all the precast
concrete lifecycle (11500 operations as shown in table 1).

4.2. Data storage performance

In the following, USEE is evaluated in terms of storage
uniformity, storage capacity, and average delay.

4.2.1. Uniformity and quality of data distribution in the

precast concrete
Fig. 5. Storage capacity of WSN inside the precast concrete using
To perform this experiment, the simulated precast is divided
USEE.
into 100 cells as shown in figure 3, illustrating a
dissemination experiment. In this figure, the red point
4.2.3. Delay of data storage process
corresponds to the node sending the data, called the “master
node”. This is the node initially receiving data sent from the The delay is the time elapsed from the beginning of
user. Each black point on the grid corresponds to a node that dissemination by the master node to the end of the process by
has stored the data. all others nodes. This parameter is influenced mainly by the
message transmission strategy of USEE. The simulation
This experience gives us an idea on how well USEE protocol
results in Castalia show that USEE allows a delay less than
distributes the information over the entire simulated precast
0.5 second for all the storage probability (min≈0.28s and
concrete. Figure 4 presents the existence ratio of the
max≈0.39s). As shown in table 1, the delay constraint of data
information in the cells. It shows that USEE has a uniform
storing in the precast concrete must be less than one minute.

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This shows that compared to our results, it is a low stress
since the delay is less than 0.5 second.
4.3. Data retrieval performance
In the following, RaWPG is evaluated in terms of response
delivery ratio and the average delay.
4.3.1. Response delivery ratio
Figure 6 shows the average delivery ratio of RaWPG. It
highlights that RaWPG ensures a response delivery ratio
upper to 90% in the precast concrete. As presented in (Mekki
et al., 2016c), RaWPG uses a link cost function which allows
choosing the most powerful node as next hop in the WSN.
Thus, the request and response messages are forwarded
through a high quality of service path.
Fig. 6. Response delivery ratio of RaWPG.
4.3.2. Delay of data retrieval process
The delay is the elapsed time between the beginning of
request transmission and the reception of the response
message by the master node (i.e. the user). The simulation
results in Castalia show that RaWPG ensures a delay less
than 0.9 second for all the path length (min≈0.12s for TTL=1
and max≈0.81s for TTL=8). As shown in table 1, the delay
constraint of data reading in the precast concrete must be less
than 5 second. This shows that compared to our results, it is
also a low stress since the delay is less than 0.9 second for all
the path length.
4.4. WSN lifetime estimation
In this section, the WSN lifetime inside the precast concrete
is estimated. The needed energy is estimated for each node to
“live” all the precast lifecycle (14 years). The energy
consumption of USEE and RaWPG was measured and
plotted in figure 7. Figure 7 shows the average energy
consumption of a node inside the concrete for different
number of storage and reading operations, respectively
performed using USEE and RaWPG. Using figure 7, the
trend line of USEE protocol could be calculated, it gives the
following equation:
y = 0,00943782 x + 0,314038
As shown in table 1, the WSN inside the concrete must
ensures at least x=11500 storage operations. Through
equation 1, each node should be empowered with at least
y=109 Joules of energy capacity to execute this number of
operations.
In addition, the trend line of RaWPG protocol gives the
following equation:
y = 0,009864048 x (2)
As shown in table 1, the WSN inside the concrete must also
ensures at least x=11553 reading operations. Through
equation 2, each node should be empowered with at least
y=114 Joules of energy capacity to execute this number of
operations.
As conclusion, to execute all the storage and reading
operations during the precast concrete lifecycle, each node
must have at least a total energy of 223 Joules (109 Joules +
114 Joules). By adding the energy required for the sensing
module and for the sleep mode, the SensorCube node
(voltage = 2.4 V) must be equipped with battery of 350 mAh
as shown in table 2, to ensure a WSN lifetime of over 14
years (this period corresponds to the duration of
BOL+MOL+EOL of precast concrete). However, battery
lifetime of WSN is actually limited to few years. As solution,
an energy scavenging module could be used for continuous
battery charging. Moreover, many academic and industrial
researches, such as (Ongaro et al., 2012) (Merla et al., 2016)
(Zhang at al., 2016), work on increasing the battery lifetime.
Also, there is an early stage research regarding production of
sensors node without batteries, using similar technologies
applied to passive radio frequency identification (RFID)
chips without batteries (Vujic et al., 2012). In the future,
WSN technologies could improve the overall duration of
sensor nodes lifetime and thus it could reach 14 years without
charging or replacement of its battery.
Fig. 7. Consumed energy for different number of storage and
reading process for USEE and RaWPG, respectively.
Table 2. SensorCube lifetime vs. Battery capacity.
250mAh 350mAh 450mAh 750mAh
Battery capacity
Theoretical
SensorCube 10.2 14.8 19.4
(1) 33 years
lifetime inside years years years
the concrete
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5. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a new communicating paradigm for precast
concrete is presented to store and retrieve data during its
lifecycle. This paradigm is developed through uniformly
integrating thousands of micro-sensor nodes in the concrete.
The data is stored and then retrieved using multi-hop
communication protocols for WSN, called respectively USEE
and RaWPG. The paper presents the instrumentation of the
WSN inside the concrete. Then, the paper presents the
performances evaluation of USEE and RaWPG protocols,
based on the case study of the precast concrete lifecycle
management, in terms of storage uniformity, storage
capacity, response delivery rate, and average delay. The
simulation results show that USEE and RaWPG meet the
constraints of data lifecycle management of precast concrete.
Finally, the WSN lifetime inside the concrete is estimated
through energy analysis. The WSN lifetime could be ensured
for the entire precast concrete lifecycle by only 350mAh.
Our future work will be focused on testing the protocols
USEE and RaWPG in real concrete brick application. The
radio signal propagation inside such real material will be
evaluated. Indeed, different performance metrics will be
studied such as the lost packet ratio to evaluate their impacts
on the data storage uniformity, the data retrieval reliability,
and the energy consumption.
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