PhD Defence: “Autonomous Wireless Sensor Network Architecture for Vehicular traffic monitoring at an Intersection”, Domga Komguem, 6th of July 2020 at 10AM

The defense will take place at the University of Yaoundé I and will be available at https://join.skype.com/EVc3J1aGhASf

Title

Autonomous Wireless Sensor Network Architecture for Vehicular traffic monitoring at an Intersection

 

Abstract

In many countries, because of the limited financial budget, the growth of road infrastructures is low compared to the growth of population and the number of vehicles in urban areas. Such a context does not make the task easy for authorities in charge of the management of transportation systems. The introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT) allows to better address these issues. Vehicular traffic management at intersections has an impact on the traffic jam observed in the whole city. In this thesis, our goal is to propose a low-cost, lightweight and autonomous Wireless Sensors Network (WSN) architecture for vehicular traffic monitoring, especially at an intersection. Vehicular traffic data collected can be used, for instance, for intelligent traffic lights management. In the WSN architecture proposed in the literature for vehicular traffic monitoring, underground sensors are used. In terms of network communication, these architectures are not realistic. Nowadays, surface-mounted sensors are proposed by manufacturers.

The first contribution of this thesis is an experimental characterization of wireless links in a WSN with sensors deployed at the ground level. We evaluate the impact of several parameters like the proximity of the ground surface, the communication frequency and the message size on the link quality. Results show a poor link quality at ground level. Based on the conclusions of the experiments, the second contribution of this thesis is WARIM, a new WSN architecture for vehicular traffic monitoring at an intersection. In WARIM, the sensors deployed on a lane form a multi-hop WSN with a linear topology (LWSN). In this network, all the data are forwarded toward the sink. In a network with such properties, the computation and communication requirements are highest in the neighborhood of the sink. Thus, the third contribution of this thesis is a virtual nodes-based and energy efficient sensors deployment strategy for LWSN. Compared to a uniform deployment, this deployment improves the network lifetime by 40%. In our intersection monitoring application, it is important to correlate the messages generated by a sensor to its position with respect to the intersection. Therefore,the fourth contribution of this thesis is, a centroid-based algorithm for sensors ranking in a LWSN. We evaluate the performance of this algorithm considering a realistic channel model, a uniform deployment, as well as the virtual nodes based-deployment proposed in this thesis. Finally, putting all our contributions together, simulations show that WARIM can be used for reliable and real-time vehicular traffic monitoring at an intersection.

 

Jury

  • Marcel FOUDA, Professor, Université de Yaoundé I, President
  • Thomas DJOTIO, Associate Professor, Université de Yaoundé I, Reviewer
  • Nathalie MITTON, Research Director, INRIA, Reviewer
  • Bernard TOURANCHEAU, Professor, Université Grenoble Alpes, Reviewer
  • André-Luc BEYLOT, Professor, ENSEEIHT Toulouse, Examinator
  • René NDOUNDAM, Associate Professor, Université de Yaoundé I, Examinator
  • Razvan STANICA, HDR, INSA Lyon, Examinator
  • Maurice TCHUENTE, Professor, Université de Yaoundé I, Co-Supervisor
  • Fabrice VALOIS, Professor, INSA Lyon, Co-Supervisor