A Distributed Sensor Network (DSN) Employing a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Microprocessor and a Custom-Designed and Factory-Manufactured Multi-Purpose Printed Circuit Board for Future Sensing Projects

Abstract

This paper presents a detailed design of an inexpensive, simple, and scalable Distributed Sensor Network (DSN). Each sensor’s hardware consists of a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B microprocessor, a specifically designed and factory-made Printed Circuit Board (PCB), an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) Hat based on a High-Capacity Lithium Polymer battery (LiPo), a Power over Ethernet Splitter, a GPS receiver, and a LoRaWAN module. Each sensor is built to capture GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth signals and sends this information to a network controller implementing a LoRaWAN gateway. Each sensor’s software is developed so that all applications run on top of a Linux operating system. The layer above it includes system daemon applications, such as Air-mon, HCI tools, GPSd, and networking support. An SQLite database sits on top of the daemon applications and records the captured information. After the DSN was successfully tested, it was deployed in a research study. The novelty of this study is that this was the first time that a DSN was used in high schools to detect leakage from IoT devices to educate students about cyber safety.

Keywords

• distributed sensor network
• Raspberry Pi
• printed circuit board
• LoRaWAN gateway
• inter-integrated circuit