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Experiences with Sub-Arctic Sensor Network Deployment

Priyesh Pappinisseri Puluckul, Maarten Weyn

TL;DR

The paper reports on long-term deployment experiences of DASH7-based low-power WSNs across three geothermally influenced ForHot sites in Iceland, obtaining real-time environmental data to study Arctic carbon dynamics. It details a modular hardware/software stack, evaluates competing wireless technologies, and documents lifecycle performance, uptime, and energy considerations of LiSOCl2-powered sensor nodes and solar-powered gateways. Over more than three years, the network demonstrates reliable operation under harsh sub-Arctic conditions, with lessons on outages, battery aging, and the trade-offs of energy harvesting. The work provides practical guidance for scalable, autonomous climate-monitoring networks in extreme environments, highlighting multi-source energy harvesting as a viable improvement.

Abstract

This paper discusses the experiences gained from designing, deploying, and maintaining low-power Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in three geothermally active remote locations in Iceland. The network was deployed for environmental monitoring and real-time data collection to assist in investigating the impact of global warming on the (sub)Arctic climate and the resulting carbon release from the region. Functional networks with more than 50 sensor nodes from three sites with extreme weather conditions and hard-to-access terrain have been collecting data since 2021. The networks employ primary cell-powered wireless sensor nodes equipped with DASH7 Alliance Protocol (D7A) for low-power data transmission and solar-powered D7A-cellular gateways for the backend connection. The WSNs have so far achieved over three years of uptime with minimal maintenance required throughout this period. We present a detailed discussion of different network components, their architecture, and the networks' overall performance and reliability.

Experiences with Sub-Arctic Sensor Network Deployment

TL;DR

The paper reports on long-term deployment experiences of DASH7-based low-power WSNs across three geothermally influenced ForHot sites in Iceland, obtaining real-time environmental data to study Arctic carbon dynamics. It details a modular hardware/software stack, evaluates competing wireless technologies, and documents lifecycle performance, uptime, and energy considerations of LiSOCl2-powered sensor nodes and solar-powered gateways. Over more than three years, the network demonstrates reliable operation under harsh sub-Arctic conditions, with lessons on outages, battery aging, and the trade-offs of energy harvesting. The work provides practical guidance for scalable, autonomous climate-monitoring networks in extreme environments, highlighting multi-source energy harvesting as a viable improvement.

Abstract

This paper discusses the experiences gained from designing, deploying, and maintaining low-power Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in three geothermally active remote locations in Iceland. The network was deployed for environmental monitoring and real-time data collection to assist in investigating the impact of global warming on the (sub)Arctic climate and the resulting carbon release from the region. Functional networks with more than 50 sensor nodes from three sites with extreme weather conditions and hard-to-access terrain have been collecting data since 2021. The networks employ primary cell-powered wireless sensor nodes equipped with DASH7 Alliance Protocol (D7A) for low-power data transmission and solar-powered D7A-cellular gateways for the backend connection. The WSNs have so far achieved over three years of uptime with minimal maintenance required throughout this period. We present a detailed discussion of different network components, their architecture, and the networks' overall performance and reliability.
Paper Structure (10 sections, 8 figures)

This paper contains 10 sections, 8 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Deployment Sites
  3. Network Components and Design
  4. Choices of Wireless Communication
  5. Wireless Sensor Nodes
  6. Gateway
  7. Network Architecture
  8. Deployment
  9. Results and Discussions
  10. Conclusion

Figures (8)

  • Figure 1: Deployments at the geothermally warmed locations within the ForHot site in Iceland.
  • Figure 2: Google Earth map showing the three sites in Iceland.
  • Figure 3: A picture of the \ref{['fig:sensor_node_components']} hardware modules: (a) extension board (b) OCTA board and \ref{['fig:sensor_node_architecture']} a block diagram of the hardware stack.
  • Figure 4: Current consumption of the sensor node at constant 3.3V with a temperature sensor connected \ref{['fig_power_profile_tx']} wake up from sleep, data acquisition and transmission, \ref{['fig_power_profile_zoom']} low power receive window.
  • Figure 5: A diagrammatic representation of the and the backend framework for data storage and visualization.
  • ...and 3 more figures