Extensive Analysis of a Real-Time Dense Wired Sensor Network Based on Traffic Shaping

XDense is a novel wired 2D mesh grid sensor network system for application scenarios that benefit from densely deployed sensing (e.g., thousands of sensors per square meter). It was conceived for cyber-physical systems that require real-time sensing and actuation, like active flow control on aircraft wing surfaces. XDense communication and distributed processing capabilities are designed to enable complex feature extraction within bounded time and in a responsive manner. In this article, we tackle the issue of deterministic behavior of XDense. We present a methodology that uses traffic-shaping heuristics to guarantee bounded communication delays and the fulfillment of memory requirements. We evaluate the model for varied network configurations and workload, and present a comparative performance analysis in terms of link utilization, queue size, and execution time. With the proposed traffic-shaping heuristics, we endow XDense with the capabilities required for real-time applications.