Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol.0, Issue 0, Month 2009, pp.

Sensors & Transducers

ISSN 1726-5479
© 2009 by IFSA
http://www.sensorsportal.com

Optimization of Energy Consumption of Rain Gauge Network

using MSG Infrared Image
Mourad LAHDIR, Mohand TAHANOUT, Mourad LAGHROUCHE,
Soltane AMEUR,
Laboratoire d’Analyse et Modélisation des Phénomènes Aléatoires (LAMPA),
Department of Electronics, Mouloud Mammeri University (UMMTO), Po Box 17 RP 15000,
Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria
Email: mlahdir@yahoo.fr, mtahanout@gmail.com, larouche_67@yahoo.fr, ameursoltane@yahoo.com

Received: /Accepted: /Published:

Abstract: This paper details the development of an easy-to-use, ultra-low power wireless data logger
incorporating a scalable, intelligent data collection and transmission topology for rain measurement.
The design of gauges sensor node of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is accomplished using low
consumption Microcontroller and electronics components operating with Zigbee wireless network
technology. To optimize the rate consumption of the energy for each sensor, we propose a novel
technique based on using, in real time, the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) infrared images to
control the activation of the gauge sensors in the precipitation area. To reach this aim, we developed
routing strategies for the Zigbee WSN. Some results of simulations are shown to illustrate the
performance of our optimization strategies.

Keywords: Rain, Wireless, lifetime, Zigbee, Meteosat.

1. Introduction
Precipitation in the form of rain, snow, or hail is the most important parameter of the hydrologic cycle.
In order to evaluate the water budget in a basin that receives water by precipitation, it is necessary to
quantify this precipitation [1]. Based on the knowledge of the amount of precipitation, one may
estimate how much of this water infiltrated to the soil or was added to the runoff. Many activities are
planned on the basis of precipitation data. This kind of information is also of great interest nowadays
for understanding and predicting the effects of a possible extreme event, which directly affects the
environment by land degradation and flooding of very large areas. On the other hand, real-time
functioning pluviometers play important roles on the prediction for geologic hazards like inundation or
avalanches. Rainfall is highly variable phenomena in both space and time, it is essential that the spatial
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and temporal resolution of rainfall measurement networks to adapt to this variability scale [2].
However, it is often difficult to make a precise assessment of rainfall because of the lack of
measurements with a resolution consistent with the spatial and temporal variability of rainfall event. In
Algeria, the meteorological network is much denser in the north than in the south. It consists of more
than fifty meteorological stations spread over all the national territory. Rainfall data of the Tizi-Ouzou
(Algeria) department face two fundamental problems. This is not only the low density of stations, but
also the poor quality of archived data. The existing network is not conducive to a better knowledge of
the spatial and temporal of happening rain event. An automated, remote rainfall gauging system with
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have been of our interest due to its many areas of application [3,
4]. The lifetime of the sensor bed is of crucial importance for the successful deployment of such
networks. Many algorithms have been proposed based on clustering and cluster head rotation to
improve the lifetime of WSNs. The lifetime of the entire sensor bed can be significantly improved if
the energy associated with a sensor node is depleted at the same rate irrespective of its location [5-9].
The objective of extending the lifetime of a node can be approached from different points of view.
Nodes generally consist of a number of components, including a microcontroller, a radio chip and
other peripherals.
As described in previous work, the most significant amount of power consumption is caused by radio
operations. Microcontrollers and other electronics components are generally designed with low
consumption characteristics, and although technology provides better results every day, reasonable
improvements can only be achieved by minimizing the time that the radio spends either in transmit or
receive mode [8-10].
This research proposes a novel technique of energy management of Zigbee WSN rain gauges based on
Meteosat infrared images to control activation of the gauge sensors in the precipitation area. These
images are received every 15 minutes with a 3x3 Km resolution. These images will be used to activate
the network of sensors that predicts a precipitating cloud. In addition, the Meteosat images are used to
quantify the precipitation rate [11, 12].
To reach this aim, we developed routing strategies for the Zigbee WSN. Some results of simulations
are shown to illustrate the performance of our optimization strategies. The WSN is developed using the
Zigbee technology with GSM transmission data. The Zigbee technology is chosen because it uses
small format, low-power and long battery life radios [13, 14]. The Zigbee WSN will cover 25x25 Km
of a watershed area located in Tizi-Ouzou. The data are collected in the WSN and sent by GSM
network through the sensor node Zigbee coordinator equipped with GSM interface. Moreover, this
paper details the development of an easy-to-use, ultra-low power wireless data logger incorporating a
scalable, intelligent data collection and transmission topology. The design of gauges sensor node of
WSN is accomplished using low consumption Microcontroller and electronics components.

2. System description

2.1 Node Hardware

The automated rain gauge system developed in this study is illustrated schematically in Figure 1. We
hereafter present its working principles. At the beginning of the precipitation, the system initiates the
measurement process when the rainwater reaches the main sensor (MS).
In this study, The PIC18F2220 microprocessor was selected because of its low-power feature (150 µA
in normal operation and 0.1 µA in sleep mode). The microcontroller handled the processes of data
conversion and temporarily stored the digitized signals in the on-chip memory before saving them to
the SD card [15]. To precisely determine the measurement times, the DS1302 RTC clock chip, a
product of the Dallas Semiconductor Company is added to the circuit. A battery pack, consisting of
two AA-sizes, 1.5V alkaline batteries (2000 mAh), provides an unregulated voltage to power the
circuit with 3V supply. All the components in the circuit are designed to operate at this voltage. Table
1 show the consumption rate of energy for each main parts of node sensor.
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Microcontrôleur Real time

Conditioning with Memory card
circuit clock

XBee Pro

Fig. 1. Automated rain gauge system

Table 1. Energy conception of sensor’s components

Component Active mode (mW) Sleep mode (µW)

Microcontroller 0.45 0.3

Conditioning circuit 0.0225 0

Real time clock 0.500 500

XBee Pro 1 (Rx)

300
64 (Tx)

The remote stations are equipped with rain gauges interfaced to XBee Pro module. The rain gauge is
based on a tipping bucket mechanism of 0.1mm accuracy. The measurement unit of the rain gauge is
shown in Figure 2. Each time the bucket is tilted around the magnetic relay which generates a pulse.
These pulses are counted in a microcontroller-based circuit to measure the rainfall. As shown in Fig. 2,
pulses obtained from a rocking pluviometer and characterizing the precipitation rate is transmitted to
the microcontroller through a diode circuit (removing all of the negative pulses), an optocoupler and an
low power operational amplifier MAX4464.

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Fig.2. The rain gauge conditioning circuit

The XBee Pro RF Modules interface to a host device through a logic level asynchronous serial port.
Through its serial port, the module can communicate with any logic and voltage compatible UART; or
through a level translator to any serial device [10]. The module UART performs tasks, such as timing
and parity checking, that are needed for data communications. Serial communications depend on the
two UARTs to be configured with compatible settings (baud rate, parity, start bits, stop bits, data bits).
At frequency of 20 MHz, PIC18F2220 can communicate with XBee Pro perfectly. Figure 3 shows the
communication between two nods.

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D.I
D.I

Microcontroller
CTS CTS
Microcontroller

 XBee Pro  XBee Pro 
D.O D.O

RTS RTS

Fig.3. The communication between two node

2.2 Description and design of sensor network

Sensor node comprises of static sensor nodes. A sensor node may have several channels with different
sensory devices connected to each of them. Sensor nodes are geographically distributed and
periodically collect measurements of different rain gauge nodes. The amount of signal energy that
reaches an individual sensor is an effective indicator of how close the node is to a potential target.
However, our WSN design we considered all nodes sensors as routers with central node represent the
coordinator which is equipped with GSM interface radio module [10]. Hardware used for this project
is WaveCom M1306B GSM/GPRS Modem or Fastrack Modem. This modem was design by using
dual band 900/1800MHz Fastrack M1306B offers GPRS Class 10 Capability with Open AT and IT
protocols such as IP connectivity as standard features. Furthermore, the node of coordinator is
equipped with special batteries with photovoltaic cells charger system to respond to the high energy
consumption of the GSM module. Once the signal is captured and pre-processed by a sensor node, the
strength level of the detected signal is broadcast (through an Omni directional antenna) to its cluster
nodes if it greater than some predefined value. Since the sensors with Zigbee modules are static and
each of them has a unique identity, a priory association of sensors and its address can be made. The
architecture is pictorially shown in figure 4.

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Fig. 4. The network architecture

3. Detection model of precipitation based on Infrared MSG image

To control activation of the gauge sensors in the precipitation area, we used Meteosat Second
Generation (MSG) satellite. The Meteosat images are used to activate the network of sensors that
predicts a precipitating cloud. In addition, the Meteosat images are used to quantify the precipitation
rate. Meteosat Second Generation starts a new chapter of the era of geostationary satellites with its
new 12 channel imager SEVIRI and 15 minute full-dish image repeat cycle. SEVIRI is expected to
contribute significantly to a better multispectral characterization of clouds and atmospheric stability
by means of improved IR calibration, radiometric performances, imaging frequency, and multispectral
image analysis [11].
The Infrared sequence data used in this paper are collected by the MSG Satellite in the spectrum
channel 10.8 (9.8 to 11.8 µm). These data are images of size 512x512 pixels saved as a bitmap in the
period from October 2007. They represent the South of Europe, the Mediterranean Sea and North
Africa. These images have a 3x3 Km resolution. Figure 5 shows the area of analysis and the rain gauge
network. This area was selected because it has the densest and most homogeneous rain gauge network
of any region in Tizi-Ouzou.

For each image of the Infrared sequence, we calculate a temperature image. The relationship between
the digital count (DC) of a pixel and temperature T for the Meteosat satellite is defined by this
equation:

⎛ DC ⎞
T ( o C ) = 55 − ⎜ ⎟ (1)
⎝ 2 ⎠

The Kmeans clustering algorithm is applied on temperature image T to highlight the different regions
[11]. The result image segmented is scanned to compare its coefficients with a threshold temperature
TB. This comparison deducts the regions that correspond to the surface of the cloud for which the
temperature of the top is below the threshold. This allows estimating the area at low temperatures,
representing the rainfall area. This detection is used to generate an activation matrix Ac representing
the different rain gauge sensor of the WSN which should be enabled. According to the experimental
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data of the global atmospheric research, the correlation between rainfall and cumulative fraction of
area of cloud top colder depends on the spatio-temporal integration and threshold brightness
temperature TB considered [12]. Researchers have confirmed that the best correlation is obtained
around TB = -40 °C and the optimal value of TB can vary considerably depending on the considered
surface and climate that prevails in the study area. Figure 6 shows an example of classified by Kmeans
algorithm with a threshold temperature TB fixed at -40 °C, where the white area indicates rain fall
production clouds and the black area, clear sky.

Fig. 5. Area of study and rain gauge deployed network.

Fig. 6. Rain area (white) as classified by Kmeans algorithm (TB =-40).

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4. Optimization power consumption algorithm and results

The power must be decreased uniformly over the all network sensors as the data are collected and
transmitted. This is performed in order to optimize the time work and avoid a premature outage due to
the critical power battery level off for each sensor. With the Zigbee protocol, we have 104 bytes of
payload. In our case, we used 2 bytes for the rainfall data, 8 bytes for RTC data and 2 bytes for
measuring the battery voltage. Depending on the chosen topology (Fig. 4), we have arranged the
sensors of the array as a square matrix where the center is occupied by the coordinator. The distance
between neighboring sensors is 3 Km.

Fig. 7. The sensor matrix (the coordinator is 25th node).

To optimize the network energy, we have defined a strategy of activation for each sensor based on the
following main actions:

1. The acquisition and transmission data is controlled by the activation matrix Ac given by the
satellite estimation for each sensor.
2. The routers path of transmission is defined early by the remote control Station using the
activation matrix Ac provided by the MSG observation and precipitation estimation model.
3. Activation of the routers sensors located between the precipitation zone and the GSM sensor
node, even if are not located in the precipitation zone, to insure the continuity of the optimum
routers path.

Let E(i, j, t), the energy available at the node (i, j) and the time t. for each time step Δt we can identify
one of the four states of working, sleep, acquisition, receiving and transmitting states. To each
functioning state, we define a consumption quantum of energy [8]. Thus, let be εs, εa, εr and εt the
consumption quanta corresponding respectively to sleep, acquisition, receiving and transmitting states.
In our study we consider only one working state at the same time for each sensor. In the general case,
the energy available for a sensor at a considered working state decreases following the rule defined as:

E (i, j , t + Δt ) = E (i, j , t ) − ε
(2)

Where ε the gradient of the consumption of the energy corresponding, respectively, to one of the
considered working state.

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To check the performance of our strategy of the energy optimization, we performed some simulations.
To do so, we have simulated activation matrix Ac from a Gaussian model which generates random
data representing the spatial distribution of precipitating phenomenon for each time step of 5 minutes.
When the Ac(i,j) equal 1 value, the sensor path having the maximum energy among the existing
shortest paths is chosen. If the energy of a sensor in the chosen path is low, then we check the energy
of neighbors node sensors. The neighbor having the maximum energy is swop up and a new optimum
path is generated starting by this node.

The curves in Figure 8 shows the results of the remaining energy for each sensor over 25000 iterations
which correspond to six months of the system operating with continuous rain. These curves
demonstrate three simulation results. The first correspond to the strategy of the shortest path in the
route Zigbee protocol without checking the neighbors nodes. We considered only the shortest paths
between a sensor node and the coordinator. In this case, the path chosen is the highest of the total
energy path among the possible shortest paths for the sensor node. Curve (a) shows a high decrease of
energy in sensors 19, 31 and 33, which are among the closest neighbors of the coordinator. The second
result is obtained by per line scan taking in the account the smallest energy of a sensor in the optimized
path obtained by the previous strategy. In this case, the low energy sensor is bypassed by the neighbor
of the highest energy. As shown in curve (b), the energy is more evenly distributed between the
sensors. Moreover, a scan strategy is tested; however the results are not better (curve (c)). To quantify
the results, the table 2 gives the average energy, the standard deviation and minimum of the curves in
Figure 7. Its shows that the strategy adopted in curve (b) are the most optimal.

Fig.8. Simulation results of the remaining energy for each sensor in (%). The results are performed for:
25000 times steps, 10 mWh daily consumption for each sensor and 10 % of self discharge of batteries

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Table 2. Statistical parameters of the optimization results

Strategies Mean (%) Standard deviation (%) Minimum (%)

Without neighbor sensor swap 42.0 15.0 0.0

Neighbor swap & line scan 45.6 6.5 30.0

Neighbor swap & spiral scan 45.6 8.5 20.0

5. Conclusion
A rain gauge wireless sensor network was developed and designed in the hope of tackling with the
problem of the lack of a practical environment monitoring system. This monitoring system consists of
three parts: data monitoring nodes, data base station and remote monitoring center. It presents us with
useful features such as large monitoring ranges, flexible configuration, low power consumption and
low cost. The system successfully performed a Zigbee wireless network with GSM gateway auto
monitoring the rain measurement. The devices also support the SD cards for memory storage. The
Zigbee radios embedded in this product are easy to enable and use. The energy required for
management support of a large network of loggers has been significantly reduced by using a low
power device with our activation technique based on MSG images to control the gauge sensors in the
precipitation area. By adopting the shortest path, the swap by the higher energy neighbor and per line
scanning, the lifetime of the rain gauge WSN is optimized. According to our study, the batteries insure
at least six months of supplying without external power during continuous rain. However, we expect a
longer lifetime of the network because the rain happens less than six months in the year. Moreover, the
lifetime could be increased by adding one pair of batteries to the nodes sensors which need high
energy; is the case of the nodes 19, 23, 27, 31 et 41.

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