The Tenth International Conference on Electronic Measurement & Instruments
Application of WSN in precision forestry
Zhang Qinghui Li Junqiu Rong Jian Xu Weiheng He Jinping
Department of Computer and Information Science, Southwest Forestry Universityˈ650224 Kunming, China
Email: huizq13@gmail.com
Abstract –In order to conveniently access information of
forestry, a new technology, wireless sensor network is
introduced in precision forestry applications. A forestry
information monitoring system based on wireless sensor
network technology is proposed, which can sample temperature,
soil moisture, light intensity, nitrogen concentration and other
environmental factors. The networks of sensor nodes are
managed by a central node which collects and transmits data to
remote host computer through GPRS. The system design
methodology based on ZigBee chip 2430 is presented and the
corresponding system hardware architecture and software flow
are given. This system effectively makes it easy to collect and
transmit data of environmental factors in forestry product and
posses high practical values.
Keywords –precision forestry, wireless sensor network, zigbee,
CC2430.
I. INTRODUCTION
With the rapid development of a series of high
technologies such as information technology,
biotechnology and engineering technology, the concept
“Precision Forestry” introduced in early 90s is becoming
increasingly important. The word, precision forestry is a
forestry production process in which high technologies
such as visual sensors, satellite positioning and other
high-tech sensing and analytical tools are used to obtain
the immediate data about work quality, quantity and
timing, and by analyzing environmental factors affect the
growing of forestry, technically feasible and economically
effective control measures are taken to achieve maximum
benefits and minimum environmental hazards [1].
Currently, the development of precision forestry has
lagged behind the development of precision agriculture. It
is due to some features such as longer cycle, more
interference, more variation and more complex conditions,
in forestry production [2]. These features make the
collection and transmission, which is an important part of
precision forestry, of environmental factors in tree growth
becomes very difficult. Therefore, a forestry ecological
environment monitoring system with the features of
low-input, low-energy, low-consumption, high-output,
high-intelligence, high-information and high-protection
of environment should be developed. Now, the emergence
of a new technology, wireless sensor network, provides a
suitable technical means for the realization of this goal.
___________________________________
978-1-4244-8161-3/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

Authorized licensed use limited to: Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL). Downloaded on July 02,2021 at 14:02:01 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
ICEMI’2011
II. WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK
Wireless sensor network, which integrates sensor
technology, MEMS technology, wireless communication
technology, embedded computing technology and
distributed information management technology, has been
under rapid development during recent years. Because of
the wide application prospect, it interests the world.
“Business Week” ever predicted in 1999 that WSN
technologies would be one of the most important
technologies in 21st [3].
ZigBee is a low-power wireless communications
technology designed for monitoring and control of
devices. It is generally considered as an optimal wireless
communication protocol, because it fully meet the
requirement of WSN application and owns such property
as higher reliability, self-organization network, self-cure
capacity and large network volume [4]. One of ZigBee's
key features is its ability to cover large areas with routers.
This feature helps differentiate ZigBee from other
technologies. Mesh networking extends the range of the
network through routing, while self healing increases the
reliability of the network by re-routing a message in case
of a node failure.
III. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
As the Figure 1 shown, the ZigBee wireless network
system adopts the Mesh topology. The sensor nodes
achieve real-time data such as temperature, humidity, soil
moisture, and nitrogen concentration, and transmit data to
the central node, coordinator. While the sensor node is far
away from the central node, the every other node can acts
as ZigBee router which is able to relay data to central node.
All of the data are directed to the ZigBee coordinator by
which these data are combined and packed and then
transmitted to the host computer through GPRS networks
allowing information to be transmitted more quickly,
immediately and efficiently across the mobile network.
On the host computer, the received data are monitored,
Fig.1 System architecture
 The Tenth International Conference on Electronic Measurement & Instruments
calculated, analyzed and evaluated by an expert system.
Based on ZigBee and GPRS, this design method in which
the ZigBee nodes are waken up periodically, effectively
reduces the power consumption of each ZigBee sensor
nodes and the probability of collisions with each other.
The PC acts as host computer and with which the Ethernet
interface is used to realize remote monitor [5].
IV. HARDWARE CIRCUIT DESIGN
A. ZigBee chip
The hardware of this system includes two parts: one is
the sensor nodes which are responsible for data
acquisition; the other is central node which is responsible
for wireless network management and data transmission
and framing. All of the two parts take CC2430 as the core
of the wireless transceiver and processing module. The
CC2430 is a true System-on-Chip (SoC) solution
specifically tailored for IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee™
applications. It combines a very excellent transceiver core
with an industry-standard enhanced 8051 MCU,
32/64/128 Flash, 8KB RAM, ADC, several timers, AES
security coprocessor, watchdog timer, two USARTs, and
many other powerful features[6]. Because of requiring
minimal external circuitry support, the CC2430 is very
convenient to use. And taking the most significant
advantage of low power consumption, the CC2430 which
has less than 0.6A current consumption in standby mode,
is very suitable for battery applications.
B. ZigBee hardware circuit endpoints
The hardware block diagram of sensor nodes and
central node is shown in Figure 2. As mentioned above,
the CC2430 is very rich in internal resources, so the core
hardware is very simple. Except for MCU chip, CC2430,
the whole hardware of sensor nodes just consists of three
parts: sensor circuit, power supply, crystal Oscillator.
Similarly, the central node is composed of three parts:
GPRS module, power supply, crystal Oscillator.
Therefore, the hardware’s size of both can be made very
small.
Fig.2 Block diagram of hardware

Authorized licensed use limited to: Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL). Downloaded on July 02,2021 at 14:02:01 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
ICEMI’2011
CC2430 integrates a 14-bit ADC with up to eight
inputs. Thus, a node can sample a variety of data. If the
number of input is more than 8 or the control circuit is
very complicated, an additional MCU and ADC can be
added to perform the corresponding functions. The MCU
can communicate with CC2430 through RS232 serial
interface. The central node periodically wakes sensor
nodes up, and collects data from these nodes. And then,
central node packets these data in accordance with
predefined format and pass these data through the serial
port to GPRS module. Finally, host computer get these
data. And then expert system process and graphically
display these data.
ZigBee communication is working at 2.4G band, the
antenna is also used in the realization of microstrip line on
the PCB to achieve. Therefore, in the PCB design, must be
strictly reference manual; placement and routing, we
should also pay attention to split the analog and digital
signal processing.
V. SOFTWARE DESIGN
A. CC2430 firmware design
The CC2430’s firmware, based on TI Z-Stack, is
developed under the IDE platform, IAR Embedded
WorkBench. Z-Stack released by TI is a protocol stack in
accordance with ZigBee 2006 specifications. With the
help of Z-Stack, our development of the firmware is
mainly about application layer.
In our system, central node is initiated as ZigBee
coordinator and sensor nodes are initiated as ZigBee
router. Coordinator is the center of the entire network,
which is responsible for functions including the
establishment, maintenance and management of networks,
and allocation of network address. The software flow
chart of coordinator is shown in Figure 3.
Fig.3 Flow chart of coordinator
At first, software initialize clock circuit, UARTs and
IO port, and then physical layer, MAC layer, set PANID,
channel and addresses to build a network. After
initialization done, the coordinator monitor RF signal and
assign network number to new node. Meanwhile central
 The Tenth International Conference on Electronic Measurement & Instruments ICEMI’2011
node enables an internal timer. When timer expires, an { ĂĂ
interrupt service routine is called to wake up sensor nodes. switch (frame)
And then central node waits for data received interrupt. { ĂĂ
After all data have been collected, central node sends case Packet_Send:
these data through RS232 serial port to GPRS module SendData[1] = 0xff;
which wirelessly forwards real-time data to host computer SendData[2] = 0xff;
through GPRS. SendData[3] = macInfo.longAddr[0];
The software flow chart of sensor nodes is shown in SendData[4] = macInfo.longAddr[1];
Figure 4. Sensor node’s hardware initialization is similar SendData[5] = 8;//data length is 8
to central nodes. After joining the network, sensor nodes for(i=0;i<=5;i++)
enter sleep mode, waiting for wakeup command. As soon cs+=SendData[i];
as get wakeup RF signal, sensor nodes sample signal and SendData[6] = cs;//checksum
transmit data to central node, and then go back to sleep SendData[7]=(Paket.Head) ;
mode. SendData[8]=(Paket.Node);
SendData[9]=(Paket.ForwardNode);
SendData[10]=(Paket.SensorNum);
SendData[11]=(Paket.HighData);
SendData[12]=(Paket.LowData);
SendData[13]=(Paket.End);
MACPutArray(SendData, 14);
MACFlush();
break;
case ĂĂ
}ĂĂ
}

B. Software design of host computer

Program of host computer is developed in

LabWindows CVI which makes it easy to collect data and
illustrate data on graph [7]. The software, whose flow chart
is shown in Figure 5, record, analyze and compare
collected data, and graphically display on screen.

Fig.4 Flow chart of sensor nodes

The data transmitted between central node and the

sensor nodes, or between central node and host computer,
is in accordance with a customized frame structure which
is shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Frame structure

Node Transfer Function

Header NO. node NO. NO. Data Checksum

8bit 8bit 16bit 8bit 16bit 8bit

The sensor nodes periodically get environmental data

and packet these data, and then transmit data to central
node which transfer these data to host computer. As soon
as these data being received, host computer analyze them
and graphically demonstrate them in user interface. The
following source code fragment is the sending function of
the sensor node, which is periodically waken up by central
node. And, if it gets the send command, the node packets
collected data in format according to Table 1 and send the
frame to physical layer program which wirelessly sent
data to central node.
void WirelessSendData(BYTE frame)
Fig.5 Flow chart of host computer
The main graphical user interface of host computer is
shown in Figure 6. There are several buttons placed on the
right of the panel. The user can observe and compare, in
graphical way, the same environmental parameter of
different sensor nodes by clicking on the buttons. Figure 7
illustrates temperature wave of four sensor nodes in 12
hours.



Authorized licensed use limited to: Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL). Downloaded on July 02,2021 at 14:02:01 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 The Tenth International Conference on Electronic Measurement & Instruments ICEMI’2011
VI. CONCLUSION

Taking advantages of the ZigBee wireless sensor

network, this system which is low-cost, low power
consumption, intelligent, easy to maintain, low
environmental pollution, accomplish monitor of
environmental parameters in forestry areas. Moreover,
just by adding appropriate sensors, the system which is
expected to achieve more functionality, is easy to be
extended in remote control and automatic control.
It is the technologic features of wireless sensor network
make it is ideal for applications in forestry production.
Supposing the WSN is combined with 3S technology very
well, it is bound to provide excellent technical support for
the change of precision forestry from theory to practical.

REFERENCES

[1] ZHANG H CH, ZHOU H P, ZHENG J Q.Development and

Fig.6 Main user interface application prospects of precision forestry[J]. World Forestry
Research, 2004,17(5): 13-16.
[2] NIE Y Z, MA X J, FENG ZH K, W H L.Design and practice in the
system of precision forestry[J]. Journal of Beijing Forestry
University, 2002, 24(3): 89-93.
[3] ZHANG Y ZH, XUE D Y, WU CH D, et al. Design and
implementation of a wireless sensor network node[C].Proceedings
of 2008 IEEE International Conference on WiCOM,2008:1- 4.
[4] LI J Q, ZHANG Q H, RONG J, et al.Application of ZigBee
Technology in Precision Forestry[J]. Journal of Agricultural
Mechanization Research, 2010,32(7):185-188.
[5] ZHANG Q H, LI J Q, ZHANG H X, et al. The design of
environmental monitoring system based on ZigBee[J]. Journal of
Foreign Electronic Measurement Technology,2010, 29(1): 46-48.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Zhang Qinghui was born in NanChong, China, in 1974. He

received MS from UESTC, Chinaˈin 2002. Now he is an
associate professor in department of computer and information
science, southwest forestry university. His research interests
include WSN and embedded system.
Fig.7 Temperature waveforms of  nodes

In addition, user can get all environmental parameters

of one specific node by clicking the round buttons,
marked by digital number, in the map. Figure 8 shows
temperature, humidity, illuminance and concentration of
carbon dioxide of node 2.

Fig.8 Waveform of node 2



Authorized licensed use limited to: Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL). Downloaded on July 02,2021 at 14:02:01 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.