A realistic testing of a shipboard wireless sensor network

International audienceWireless Sensor Networks (WSN) may be a very useful technology for monitoring systems in hostile environments. Few works have treated the use of this technology in the particular metallic shipboard environment. This paper reports on the deployment of a WSN on board a ferry in realistic conditions. The network was tested during sailings and stopovers for several days. The results of our previous papers reporting on the radio wave propagation on board ships are recalled. Network performance and its topology evolution with respect to previous results are presented. In spite of the metallic structure of ferries and the dynamic movement of crew and passengers on board, the results show a significant network reliability and connectivity. The previous conclusions have been also confirmed by the topology evolution of the network and the analysis of RSSI levels of links between sensor nodes