Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine 25-4 - 21

Distributed Measurement Systems:
Advantages and Challenges of
Wireless Sensor Networks
Luca Lombardo
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n general, a distributed system can be considered as an aggregation
of several units which, even though physically
located in different positions, are able to jointly carry out
some specified tasks, communicating together by means of a
suitable network infrastructure. This type of system was born
with the introduction of the first communication networks,
and it started growing quickly with the establishment of the
first world-wide network: the Internet. As a matter of fact, the
spreading of the Internet provided developers with a new and
almost-ubiquitous network that is able to connect virtually
any kinds of devices and make them operate together.
The idea of distributed systems can be successfully applied
to the metrological field with the development of
so-called distributed measurement systems, which are distributed
systems whose units are able to perform some kind of
measurement, to acquire data and to aggregate them in order
to carry out a specified task. This article provides a general
overview of distributed measurement systems and their applications,
highlighting the unique advantages of such systems,
while also discussing the actual technological limitations and
challenges.
Distributed Measurement Systems
Several measurement applications require, due to their intrinsic
nature, a distributed acquisition of information in several
locations. As an example, to optimize the power distribution
in electric grids it is required to measure specific parameters
in specific grid nodes. Such nodes can be located at distances
up to several kilometers, and the information acquired in each
one of them should be aggregated and processed together to
maintain optimal and safe conditions all over the grid. In these
types of applications, the employment of distributed measurement
systems is of great benefit and often compulsory.
The basic structure of a distributed measurement system
is shown in Fig. 1. A set of instruments and sensors, called
measurement nodes, are deployed in several locations and
connected by means of a suitable network infrastructure. In
general, each node is able to perform a specific task, such as
acquire measurements, and optionally process the acquired
data. According to the working protocol and the ultimate task
of the system, the nodes either can be managed by a supervisor
node or they can cooperate together (collaborative systems)
for achieving a specified result. Depending on the application,
the network can be either an existing infrastructure (such as
the Internet and the mobile phone grid) or a specifically-designed
communication network for hosting the measurement
system. Sometimes, such as in the case of wireless sensor networks,
the nodes themselves are responsible to create and
manage the network infrastructure.
A distributed measurement system has several advantages
over a traditional concentrated one [1]. First of all, it allows one
to carry out specific measurements with several instruments
placed in far away locations and to process the acquired data
as if such instruments were concentrated in the same place. As
a consequence of this, a number of hardware resources can be
shared in the infrastructure, and it is not required to replicate
the whole hardware in each location. Also, data processing can
often be shared over all the nodes, and in general, this allows
Fig. 1. General structure of a distributed measurement system.
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June 2022
IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine
1094-6969/22/$25.00©2022IEEE
21
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Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine 25-4

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