Design of a wireless sensor network monitoring system for biological and pharmaceutical products

Abstract

Biological and pharmaceutical (B&P) products are essential in modern life. Currently, the demand and requirements of these products are dramatically growing; product quality and integrity then become crucial. As a key factor for ensuring quality and integrity, the current product status monitoring system needs to be enhanced in a more sophisticated and comprehensive way. This research describes the design of a wireless sensor network (WSN) monitoring system for B&P products supply chain management. In this study, the system architecture is presented based on the proposed framework. The framework consists of three processes: the first one is to generate a WSN with full coverage, the second one is to determine the optimal position of the sink, and the last process is to add additional relay nodes for providing fault tolerance to the network. Finally, a feasibility test on B&P product storage in a hospital is conducted. The proposed system provides a systematic approach for the deployment of sensor nodes and relay nodes. It also provides a relatively simple and rapid method for industries in general to follow and implement when designing a WSN system.