Proceedings of 2010 IEEE Asia-Pacific Conference on Applied Electromagnetics (APACE 2010)

Hydraulic Pressure Distribution For Pipeline

Networks By Wireless Sensor Networks
Reza Aminzadeh , Feraydune Kashefi , Hamideh Alee
Department of Electrical Engineering, Imam Reza International University
Department of Electrical Engineering, Khavaran Higher Education Institute
Mashhad, Iran
{reza.aminzadeh, fred.kashefi}@ieee.org, aleehamideh@gmail.com
AbstractIn this paper, we propose a new application of wireless
sensor networks for real time monitoring of water pressure
distribution in urban areas. Our application consists of a number
of clustered sensor nodes that measure the pressure in water
pipelines. Sensor nodes communication is based on the
IEEE802.15.4 standard by the help of Zigbee modules. The data
is collected in 15-minute periods and is sent to the control center
via GPRS. The main purpose of this application is to solve the
problem of unbalanced water pressure distribution in cities. We
setup smart cyclic sleep modes that made our system, energy
efficient and very low-power consumption. We implemented this
application in city of Mashhad. We analyzed water pipeline
system pressure measurement in several periods, which gave us
the optimum pressure needed for an area based on its population,
longitude and consumption pattern. We concluded that our
solution will improve and eliminate the city water pressure
distribution problem.
Keywords- energy efficient; GPRS; pipeline networks; water
pressure; wireless sensor networks; Zigbee.

I.

designed and implemented a hydraulic network map by

wireless sensor networks. A wireless sensor network (WSN)
consists of a spatially distributed autonomous sensors to
cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions
[1]. In this paper, we describe a new application of wireless
sensor networks; a monitoring system for water pipelines in
different areas of a city. The objective of this application is to
create a system to enable continuous monitoring of water
pressure in hydraulic pipelines. It also employs the content
model for understanding the status of water pressure in water
pipelines in a city. We implemented the system in some parts
of Mashhad metropolis, according to the test results this
system can run stably and its operation is convenient.
In the rest of paper, we provide an overview of related work in
section II which drives our system design. Description of the
architecture and components of our system will be presented
in section III; we describe software design in section IV. We
also discuss the results and the data collected by our system in
section V. We then conclude our paper in section VI, where
we also describe some future work.

INTRODUCTION

The motivation of this project was the resolution of

adequate city water service distribution problem. By
monitoring the water pressure distribution in water pipeline
system, the recorded data can be mapped and analyzed, which
will help water system organizations to improve and/or
redesign hydraulic network in cities. In urban areas water is
delivered through pipeline system buried in the main and local
public roads and streets. The selection of main roads and
public paths is due to the ease of maintenance and protection.
The increasing of population in cities and need for water
service further forces the city water engineers to miss the
opportunity to make correct design and right decision for
delivering the adequate water pressure. Other factors like
consumption pattern and time (i.e. morning), also effect the
pressure of water in a place. In a crowded area with high in
altitude, the need for water is more than a less crowded area
with a lower in altitude, but still pipelines are the same and
water pressure differs in these areas. Referring to the recorded
consumption pattern data, it has been shown that the less
crowded area occasionally consume more water than the
crowded area. As a solution for this kind of problem, we

Xplore Compliant 2010 IEEE

II.

RELATED WORK

To our knowledge there have been no other related work,

measuring and monitoring water pressure in urban areas.
Pipeline monitoring is widely used for water quality
monitoring [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], water leakage detection
[8], remote measuring systems [9], steam flood monitoring
[10] and environmental monitoring [11]. Most of these
systems, are expensive, little scalable, inflexible and not
interoperable and provide the results with long delay.
III.

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

Data acquisition layer consists of the coordinator and a

large quantity of sensor nodes deployed in preferred locations
in different parts of the city. We divided each area to different
zones. Each zone composed of clustered sensors that
communicate by Zigbee modules to each other nodes. Sensor
nodes in each cluster measure water pressure in pipelines, and
then each cluster communicates with the nearby coordinator
that collects data from clusters. Fig. 1 shows two clusters and
the communication link between two coordinators.

A. Communication Model
The flow data is sent to the control center via GPRS every
15 minutes. We will describe the communication scenario for
this application. Our main concern is underground to above
ground radio communication.
In [12, 13] a concept of an underground WSN with an
assumption that the underground environment is soil is
introduced. Typically our sensor node is placed in a box made
of concrete and cast iron. Radio propagation will be affected by
the presence of the cast iron and also by the concrete and
surrounding soil components and particularly with the existing
metal lid on the box. Clearly in this case, sensor node
communication will not be possible without the use of relay
nodes on the ground surface. Therefore, we suggest using relay
nodes on the surface within communication range of each
underground node as shown in Fig. 2.

GPRS

Coordinator

B. Wireless Communication Module

Wireless communication module is responsible for intercluster and intra-cluster wireless communication. Our system
composed of two parts for communication, the first part is
communication between sensor nodes which we used Zigbee
standard based on IEEE802.15.4 which is an energy efficient
standard for WSN. The second is communication of
coordinators to the control center which is done in GPRS
platform. We used XB24-AWI-001 Zigbee module from Max
Stream [17] which is a low power module. Its specifications
are 100m radio range, 1mW transmit power output, 2.8V-3.4V
supply voltage and 2.4 GHz operating frequency.
1) Zigbee Technology
Zigbee is a low cost, two-way, wireless communication
standard. Its operating rate varies from normal 75m to even a
few kilometers. It is used in sensor networks to meet the low
power consumption requirements [3]. Zigbee architecture is
composed of a number of layers in order to simplify the
standards. Each layer is responsible for one part of the
standards and offers services to the higher layers. The
interfaces between the layers serve to define the logical links
that are described in this standard [2]. IEEE802.15.4
specification is short-range wireless technology that works in
the range of 2.4 GHz, and is the protocol basis of the
application layer and network layer of Zigbee. Based on this
standard, a number of sensor nodes transmit data from one
sensor to another sensor in order to achieve the higher
efficiency of energy-saving communication [3].
C.

Figure 1.Cluster and Coordinators communication.

Figure 2.Underground communication to above ground.

So the underground sensor node only communicates to a

nearby relay node, which will then route the data towards the
coordinator through a network comprising other relay nodes
[14]. Various propagation models for WSN deployment with
both transmitter and receiver nodes above the ground have
been studied in [15, 16]. To our knowledge, there has been no
path loss model exists for this scenario. Based on the previous
related work underground communication in [14] we use 2.4
GHz instead of 868 MHz, at a typical 100m operating range.

Design of Coordinator
Coordinator transmits the whole collected data from
clusters to the control center via GPRS. Each coordinator
consists of a microcontroller, a battery, a Zigbee module and a
GPRS module which is shown in Fig. 3.
We used Atmega128 from ATMEL as the MCU unit for
the coordinator. Zigbee module is connected through USART
to the microcontroller. MCU reads the data from Zigbee
module then sends the data through Serial RS232 port via
GPRS to the control center. For minimizing power
consumption coordinator will enter sleep mode when there is
no data. The consumption current of the module is less than
50uA (at 3.0V) when asleep. As mentioned above we send
data to the control center every 15 minutes, so in the periods
between each 15 minutes the coordinator sleeps but as the
coordinator is responsible for a number of sensor nodes the
sleep modes differs from sensor nodes. The Zigbee module
has a cyclic sleep mode which is suitable for coordinators. The
cyclic sleep modes allow modules to periodically check for RF
data. It wakes once a cycle to check for data from a module
configured as a Cyclic Sleep Coordinator. The Cyclic Sleep
Remote sends a poll request to the coordinator at a specific
interval set by the SP (Cyclic Sleep Period) parameter. The
coordinator will transmit any queued data addressed to that
specific remote upon receiving the poll request. If no data is
queued for the remote, the coordinator will not transmit and
the remote will return to sleep for another cycle. If queued
data is transmitted back to the remote, it will stay awake to

allow for back and forth communication until the ST (Time

before Sleep) timer expires [17].

GPRS
MCU

completely, it checks for new data, if there is no more data, it

enters the sleep mode and waits until the next interrupt coming
by a sensor node. The details of sleep mode mentioned in
section III. If it finds no data, maybe the connection link has
not been established correctly so it tries to find the nodes
address and establish the connection. Fig. 5 shows the diagram
of coordinators software.

Zigbee
Figure 3.Diagram of coordinator.

D. Design of Sensor nodes

The sensor node is composed of the water pressure sensor,
transducer, Zigbee module, and battery. We used an OEM
Piezo-resistive pressure sensor, CPS181 from Sense
Instruments. Its specification is high pressure input (i.e.
880bar), fast dynamic response and 2V-30V dc supply voltage
[18]. This is while the ultrasonic sensors are high-power
devices consuming of about 550mW and are not suitable for
energy efficient WSN applications. The water pressure sensors
convert pressure to electrical signals, the signal is voltage
signal. By using a transducer the output voltage is amplified
and then sampled by A/D, then digital samples go through
MCU, then they will be transmitted via Zigbee module to the
relay nodes. Each sensor measures water pressure in 15-minute
periods and in another time enters the sleep mode to minimize
sensor nodes power consumption. Although the MCU enters
the sleep mode, we setup the Zigbee module to enter hibernate
mode. For Zigbee module in hibernate mode the power down
current consumption is less than 10uA (at 3.0 V), and wake up
time is 13.2ms. Pin hibernate mode, minimizes quiescent
power (power consumed when in a state of rest or inactivity).
This mode is voltage level-activated; when Sleep request is
asserted, the module will finish any transmit, receive or
association activities, enter Idle Mode and then enter a state of
sleep. The module will not respond to either serial or RF
activity while in pin sleep [17].
E. Laboratory Validation
At the first stage before we implement the final
application, we concentrated on the development and field
evaluation of a small prototype laboratory model. So a pipe rig
(Fig. 4) was constructed to evaluate and illustrate our
monitoring system. This consists of three clusters and each
cluster had a single sensor node. The pipe rigs whole length is
10m. We deployed three sensors, two in both the ends and one
in the middle of the pipe, with 5m length between each sensor.
IV.

SOFTWARE DESIGN

A. Coordinator Software
First it scans for sensor nodes and if it initializes the proper
node, a connection link will be established between them, then
if we have data from sensor nodes, it collects the data and
forwards it to the upper layer. When it sends the whole data

Figure 4.Laboratory pipe rig.

Some Common Mistakes

Figure 5.Coordinator software diagram.

B. Sensor node Software

At the start mode the sensor node enters sleep mode until
an incoming interrupt wakes it up. If there is no interrupt, it
enters sleep mode again. After 15 minutes (a timer in the
MCU has been configured) it wakes up and checks for new
data and if any data is detected, collects them and then
transmits the processed data to the coordinator. Then the
sensor turns into resting mode and turns off the power of
sensor module. Fig. 6 shows the diagram of sensor node
software and its operation.
C. Contorl Center Software
The monitoring center control software consists of the user
interface module, the database module, and the connection
module. The communication module can communicate with
the coordinator nodes via GPRS. So it can realize the data
transmission as well as linking data with internet for longdistance sharing.

locations. So each figure shows the pressure changes for two

separate locations but with the same population.

Figure 6.Sensor node software diagram.

V.

Figure 8.Pressure of 2 sensor node with the same population.

RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS

We saved and analyzed data in the control center. In this

section we describe the data collected by our monitoring
system and then some figures illustrate power consumption of
sensor nodes to show that our method is energy efficient.
In Fig. 7 you can see the water pressure of one sensor node
during one month. In a 30-day period we mapped water
pressure consumption of an area in Mashhad city. It shows
that in the first week the pressure in that area is lower than the
second week and it can be understood that by the end of each
day (i.e. day 3) the pressure increases and within the start of
the next day the pressure decreases (i.e. day 4). There have
been other diagrams of the same parameter as figure 7, for
other locations in the city but here we avoid showing them
because of page limitation.

VI.

Figure 9.Pressure of 2 sensor node with the same population.

Fig. 10 shows the pressure changes for three locations in

one day from 8:00AM to 2:00PM with three colors.

USING THE TEMPLATE

Figure 7.Water pressure of one sensor node in a 30-day period.

In the next two figures, Fig. 8 to Fig. 9 the pressure of four

areas from ten zone in Mashhad city are shown in 30-minute
intervals from 8:00AM to 12:30PM. For a better
understanding we divided it into 5 figures in each the pressure
of two areas are shown. Fig. 8 shows the pressure of location 3
and location 4 and in Fig. 9, location 9 and 10 can be seen.
We tried to select each two areas with the same population.
In other words, in Fig. 8 location 3 and 4 and in Fig. 9 location
9 and 10 have the same population; and the same for other

Figure 10.Pressure changes for 3 locations in a 24-hour period.

Fig. 11 and 12 show the relation between population, time,

and water pressure. We summarized a part of the data in this
figure, to understand the amount of water consumed in a
specific time by the people of an area. We understood
consumption pattern and pressure distribution in different
areas of the city.

map consumption pattern and water pipelines pressure

distribution in the different areas of the city. This study and
analysis can help city water system engineers to better design
and deliver the right water service need. Implementing a
national network is our future research and in the future we
will study how to implement this project in a country level.
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Figure 11.The relation between population, pressure and time.
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Figure 12.The relation between population, pressure and time.
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Fig. 13 shows coordinator current consumption for our

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Figure 13.Coordinator current consumption in 24-hour period.
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VI.

CONCLUSION

In this paper we presented a new application of wireless

sensor networks, for real time monitoring of pipelines water
pressure in urban areas. Our method in energy efficient and
consists of lots of clusters and coordinators. Underground
communication was the most challenging aspect of our work,
and we used relay nodes as a solution to this problem.
Communication between sensors based on the IEEE802.15.4
standard by help of Zigbee modules. Data is collected in 15minute intervals and communication of coordinators to the
control center is based on GPRS platform. We were able to

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