Bucket-brigade inspired power line network protocol for sensed quantity profile acquisition with smart sensors deployed as a queue in harsh environment

Abstract: Pressure and temperature profile are key data for safe production in oil and gas wells. In this paper, a bucket-brigade inspired sensor network protocol is proposed which can be used to extract sensed data profile from the nanoscale up to kilometer long structures. The PHY/MAC layers are discussed. This protocol is best suited for low data rate exchanges in small fixed-size packets, named buckets, transmitted as time-domain bursts among high-precision smart sensors deployed as a queue. There is only one coordinator, which is not directly accessible by most of the sensor nodes. The coordinator is responsible for collecting the measurement profile and send it to a supervisory node. There is no need for complex routing mechanism, as the network topology is determined during deployment. There are many applications which require sensors to be deployed as a long queue and sensed data could be transmitted at low data rates. Examples of such monitoring applications are: neural connected artificial skin, oil/gas/water pipeline integrity, power transmission line tower integrity, (rail)road/highway lighting and integrity, individualized monitoring in vineyard or re-foresting or plantation, underwater telecommunications cable integrity, oil/gas riser integrity, oil/gas well temperature and pressure profile, among others. For robustness and reduced electromagnetic interference, wired network is preferred. Besides in some harsh environment wireless is not feasible. To reduce wiring, communications can be carried out in the same cable used to supply electrical power.