SHOX

GATEWAY

Brief description of the function: The SHOX Communication Gateway is a modern embedded server machine that stands in the middle of the different types of networks interworking in SHOX allowing at the same time sensor data acquisition, aggregation, storage and unified management. More specifically, the Gateway supports heterogeneous access interfaces for in-building local communication as well as for conveying to a wide area all sensors’ information towards the assessment end users platform, namely the PPCDN tool. The Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is based on the ZigBee Pro Protocol and essentially facilitates management and data transmission of the strain sensors and the local positioning tags. The WSN can be highly extendable allowing for addition of other types of sensors supporting new application in building monitoring.

 

The SHOX Communication Gateway is the “heart” of the overall Communication System. This is where all sensor collected data is aggregated, formatted, classified, validated and finally transmitted to the PCCDN tool for further processing and subsequently overall structural and non-structural assessment. Essentially, the GW bi-directionally translates all communication protocols utilised within the building to a series of web-services that reach the online SHOX platform (aka the PPCDN tool) to support sensor management and data capturing. The GW ensures through its heterogeneous interfaces that the end users will receive under any circumstances the building’s structural properties as the latter are detected by the sensors. Furthermore, the underlying sensor network is monitored and managed so as to operate efficiently in terms of availability, reliability and power consumption.

 

Features: High performance, robustness, redundancy, efficient utilization of different communication interfaces, management of different wired and wireless sensor networks in terms of routing, transmission performance and power consumption.

 

Benefits:

The SHOX Communication GW supports on one end adaptive and secure access to multiple wide area networks through parallel paths which convey sensor data to remote sensor data services, thus ensuring building monitoring under any circumstances (e.g. network congestion or unavailability). For in building communications, the GW boosts LAN and WSN interoperability, fault tolerance, recovery and overall management. Further to this it implements security features to ensure that overall data handling is targeting authorised users and network devices. Last but not least, the SHOX WSN allows for low power communications and resilient routing schemes.

 

The SHOX communication GW is the main point of data aggregation and management of instrumentation means. In other words, the GW is the point of convergence for multiple networks, protocols, devices and data formats, thus allowing for holistic building monitoring capabilities. The WSN provides a low-cost and reliable solution for minimising single point of failures for sensing devices whilst enabling their long-term usage by managing their operational cycle.