The University of Sydney

Faculty of Engineering

School of Electrical and Information Engineering

Year 2014

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of a Master of Enginnering Degree

Student Name ANWAR TARIQ

SID 430465376

Unit Of Study Code And Name

CAPSTONE PROJECT A ELEC 5020 PART A

Supervisor Dr Younghui Li

Title ENERGY HARVESTING USING ZIGBEE

© Copyright 2013

INTRODUCTIONIn today’s world communication is essential whether we are 1 metre away or 10000 miles away communication and exchange of information has become an essential part of our daily lives. Different technologies are being introduced every day to make this communicating a better experience. Zigbee is one such technology that has been coming up over the past 5 years and is being introduced in daily activities as well.

The project deals with involves understanding of zigbee technology how it works what are its protocols and what can beused to enhance the understanding on this technology. Energy harvesting is the process of capturing small amounts of energy. This project deals with the harvesting of energy usingzigbee technology.

There are several devices which are required for this project which include

Power and data Transmitter P2110 Evaluation board Path antenna, Dipole Antenna Wireless sensor board Microchip development board PIC kit programmer debugger

Zigbee is a mesh network specification for low power WLANS that is wireless local area networks which are networks that link two devices or many devices using a distribution method. Zigbee covers a large area. [1]

ZigBee functions on IEEE 802.15.4 physical radio specificationThe basis for zigbee comes from the EEE(Electronics and Electrical ) Engineers standard association 802.15 specification. Zigbee operates at different frequency bands such as 900 MHz, 868 MHz and 2.4 GHz.

There are several benefits of this technology some include

It is easy to use – Devices can be controlled behind walls or cabinets and there are no limitations such as line of sight or field of vision

Better, Faster and more reliable communication- It is much faster than infrared wireless technology and it alsoallows enhanced user interface.

Better Technology- It is replacing old Infra-red wirelesstechnology where there has been no significant innovationin this technology for a long period of time. It also offers better features such as enhanced user interface and advanced display capabilities.

Easier to implement Allows smarter home automation [2]

LITERATURE REVIEW

For this project it is essential to understand zigbee technology as it is a new technology and is still not widely recognized therefore a major portion of the literature review deals with the understanding of zigbee .

As mentioned before zigbee is a mesh network specification for low power WLANS that is wireless local area networks which are networks that link two devices ormany devices using a distribution method. Zigbee covers alarge area.

ZIGBEE NETWORK TOPOLOGY

The three main network topologies that are used by Zigbeedevices are star topology, cluster topology and mesh network. Each topology can have only one coordinator in the network. STAR NETWORK-

The ball highlighted in black represents the coordinator and it is responsible for the network. The blue balls represent the other devices with whom the coordinator will communicate directly. Such a network topology is suitable for applications that are critical in terms of time and networks which have a centralized device.

TREE NETWORK

In this figure highlighted black ball represents the coordinator while the highlighted black squares representthe routers and the remaining blue balls represent the end device. The network initiation is maintained by the coordinator and the routers extend this network by controlling the flow of data. Hierarchical routing strategies are used in this network.

MESH NETWORK-

In this figure the highlighted black balls represent the coordinator while the highlighted black squares representthe routers and the rest of the blue balls represent the end devices. Similar to tree network in mesh network the responsibility of the coordinator is to maintain and initiate the network. Peer to peer communication is allowed which is each party or device has the same specification and each party can initiate communication in mesh network except for the scenario of RFD-RFD. Decentralized data routing is used. Mesh network is preferred as even in the situation of a node failing another delivery route can be used. [3]

ZIGBEE ARCHITECTURE

Layers are set of blocks that represent the architecture of zigbee with each layer performing certain services for the corresponding layer above. It consists of seven layers. Thereare two entities present which are data entity and management entity where data entity provides data transmission service and all the other services which may be required are provided by the management entity. There are services entities present as well and uses service access points to provide interface tothe layers that are above it. The Zigbee stack architecture only defines the relevant layers. The IEEE 802.15.4 standard defines two lower layers which are the physical layer and the medium access control sub layer. The physical layer may be called the PHY layer and the medium access control sub layer as the MAC layer. This foundation is further strengthened by the network layer. The frame work of the application layer is also built which includes application sub layer. [5]

The functions of each of the layers are-

PHYSCIAL LAYER- It is the lowest layer and the functions include

Radio transmitters are activated and can be deactivated by the physical layer

It is responsible for the detection of energy received byan end device.

It selects the channel frequency The physical layer is assigned with the duty of data

reception as well as data transmission.

MAC LAYER- The main duty of the MAC layer that is the media access control layer is to maintain the network. Its functionsinclude

It is responsible for the security of the frame The other main duties of the MAC layer include the

transmission and reception or rejection of different frames which may be acknowledged or unacknowledged

The MAC layer is responsible for channel access specification

NETWORK LAYER- It is responsible for mesh networking and otherfunctions include

The network layer routes frames to their destinations andconsists of the methods which may be used to leave a network or join a network.

Security of the frames is also provided by this layer. The network layer is also used for the storage of

information from pertinent neighbours It is also assigned with the duty of launching of new

networks whenever required and associating with new devices by providing the devices with specific addresses.

APPLICATION SUPPORT SUB LAYER- It acts as a filter for the applications in order to simplify the logic used in the applications. Other functions include

It is responsible for confirming where the end point is amember of the application profile or not

At times the network layer sends out duplicate messages these are filtered out by the application support sub layer

It recognizes different nodes in a network and which nodeis communicating.

ZIGBEE DEVICE OBJECT- The functions of this layer are

It defines the state of nodes The responsibility of the ZDO that is the zigbee device

object is also to find out or discover other nodes One of the main duties of the ZDO layer is the management

of the network whether it be local or over the air.

APPLICATION FRAME WORK- The features of this layer are

The application frame work as the name suggests provides a frame work from which or within which applications can run

It is also responsible for distinguishing different applications

SECURITY SERVICES – The features of this layer are-

It is used by almost all the layers and therefore as referred to form the diagram is off to the side so the zigbee device object, the network layer the application sub layer can use it. [6]

PROGRESS SO FARAs zigbee is a new technology that i was not very familiar with the main motive was to familiarize myself with zigbee andthrough reading and going through different papers available online going through notes from courses at the university as well like embedded systems i have a strong idea of what zigbeeis about and most importantly the different layers included how they interact with each other and the functions of each ofthe individual layers.

The different devices used in this project include

Power and data transmitter- The transmitter used is a 3 watt with frequency 915 MHz . It also includes an integrated 8 dBi antenna. The function of this power data transmit is to send a pre-programmed transmitter IDthat can be further decoded on the wireless sensor board.

P21110 Evaluation Board- This has an SMA connector to connect the antennas and a 10 pin connector as well which can be used when connecting to the wireless senor board.

Patch antenna- This is a 915 MHz directional antenna and has a reception pattern of 120 degrees

Dipole antenna- The dipole antenna used is a 915 MHz Omni directional antenna which has a reception pattern of 360 degrees.

Wireless sensor board- It is a senor for several thingslike light an connects into the evaluation board and sends data to access points

Microchip 16-bit XLP Development Board – It operates as an access point for receiving data form wireless sensor board

Microchip MRF24J40PICtail/PICtail Plus Daughter Board – It is of 2.4 GHz and connects or plugs into the microchip development board and receives data form the wireless sensor boards.

PICkit™ 3 programmer /debugger – This is a programming tool which updates codes on the different boards. [8]

This was all the equipment that was used in this project so far. I have familiarized myself with most of these devices andhave concentrated on doing just that over the last few weeks.

The next step was to understand the software used in this project and the software used is MPLAB . MPLAB is a toolset which is used for development in the embedded applications on microchip micro controllers. a free, integrated toolset for the development of embedded applications on Microchip's PIC and dsPIC microcontrollers.

The knowledge of C language is also essential as it can be used to program the code for the micro controller and I am currently working on that as well as well as combining the theinformation available from the embed systems course for continuation for the project.

PROPOSAL PLAN FOR NEXT SEMESTERThe different objectives of next semester include-

Build upon the understanding of the zigbee technology andhow it can used in day to day life

Using C language develop the proper program for the energy harvesting using zigbee technology

Appropriately make use of all the devices to achieve desired result

Check if the gained knowledge of Zigbee be used in globalpositioning system and understanding how that project works

Conduct using MPLAB the transmission and receiving of energy using zigbee

REFERENCES1. Search Mobile communications viewed 21 October 2014

http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/definition/ZigBee

2. Zigbee remote control benefits ,zigbee alliance viewed 11October 2014 http://www.zigbee.org/Standards/ZigBeeRemoteControl/Benefits.aspx

3. Jianpo Li, Xuning Zhu, Ning Tang Department of Information Engineering Northeast Dianli University “Study on ZigBee Network Architecture and Routing Algorithm” 2nd International Conference on Signal Processing Systems (ICSPS) 2010

4. Tech target viewed 25 October 2014 http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/peer-to-peer

5. Miroslav Sveda, Roman Trchalik Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology, Bozetechova 2,61266 Brno, Czech Republic “ZigBee-to-Internet Interconnection Architectures” Second International Conference on Systems 2007

6. Zigbee / Section 6 created by Arkaprava Sadhu viewed 10 October 2014 http://lurnq.com/lesson/Zigbee/section/Architecture/

7. MPLAB® X Integrated Development Environment (IDE) by Microchip viewed 20 October http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en-us/family/mplabx/

8. Lifetime Power Energy Harvesting Development Kit for Wireless Sensors User’s Manual by power cast viewed 10 October http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/329/P2110-EVAL-01-manual-2151.pdf