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GE Sensing, Dust Networks to Develop Wireless Sensors
All this data will travel from node to node until it reaches a gateway connected to a computer network. However, the RF Mesh network is designed to prefer a logger connection directly to the gateway/base station, and will try to maintain such an optimized connection. Each node will also connect to another sensor node as a backup/redundant connection, which can be viewed as each sensor node with two or more parents, one of which is preferably the gateway. If the gateway is not in range, however, the two parent nodes can be other sensor nodes, which in turn can forward data back to the gateway.
Companies can view the data collected in real-time. If an event occurs, such as a freezer door not closing properly, then corrective action can be taken immediately.
Monitoring the temperature and moisture conditions in such precise detail, Wortley says, is required for companies to meet regulations set forth by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In fact, the FDA requires a cooler storing vaccines be checked for maximum and minimum temperature and humidity, and that cold and hot spots be identified and compared with previous tests. To validate the tests, companies must have redundant, reliable networks to collect and communicate the sensor data. "Losing a single data point," says Wortley, "could potentially require a re-run of the 12- to 72-hour process."
Redundancy is very important. As such, GE Sensing added storage to its loggers to ensure that if a logger fails, the data is always stored within it for later retrieval via the RF network. The information in the sensor node is stored in non-volatile memory, so if the logger's battery dies, the user can replace it, and the sensor node will then rejoin the mesh network, and any data stored in the node can be retrieved by the network, up to the point of failure.
"In the highly regulated pharmaceutical industry," Wortley says, "data is critical to the validation process and cannot be lost. Even the extremely reliable RF mesh network technology cannot absolutely guarantee 100 percent data delivery, so GE Sensing added the additional redundancy layer of data storage in both the node and the gateway. We can achieve true 100 percent data reliability using this scheme."
The partnership with GE Sensing is not Dust Networks' first. Last year, the company announced that Emerson Process Management would employ TSMP in its Smart Wireless products, designed for use with wireless networks at manufacturing plants.
GE Sensing's decision to use TSMP will help further boost Dust Networks' mesh networking technology, says Rob Conant, Dust's cofounder and VP of business development. GE Sensing's customers, he adds, also stand to gain from using TSMP-based sensors. "Wireless sensor networking technology will allow customers to measure and control more for less, resulting in lower costs, better energy efficiency and better productivity," says Conant. "Dust and GE Sensing's partnership will accelerate these benefits for GE Sensing's customers."
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Companies can view the data collected in real-time. If an event occurs, such as a freezer door not closing properly, then corrective action can be taken immediately.
Monitoring the temperature and moisture conditions in such precise detail, Wortley says, is required for companies to meet regulations set forth by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In fact, the FDA requires a cooler storing vaccines be checked for maximum and minimum temperature and humidity, and that cold and hot spots be identified and compared with previous tests. To validate the tests, companies must have redundant, reliable networks to collect and communicate the sensor data. "Losing a single data point," says Wortley, "could potentially require a re-run of the 12- to 72-hour process."
Redundancy is very important. As such, GE Sensing added storage to its loggers to ensure that if a logger fails, the data is always stored within it for later retrieval via the RF network. The information in the sensor node is stored in non-volatile memory, so if the logger's battery dies, the user can replace it, and the sensor node will then rejoin the mesh network, and any data stored in the node can be retrieved by the network, up to the point of failure.
"In the highly regulated pharmaceutical industry," Wortley says, "data is critical to the validation process and cannot be lost. Even the extremely reliable RF mesh network technology cannot absolutely guarantee 100 percent data delivery, so GE Sensing added the additional redundancy layer of data storage in both the node and the gateway. We can achieve true 100 percent data reliability using this scheme."
The partnership with GE Sensing is not Dust Networks' first. Last year, the company announced that Emerson Process Management would employ TSMP in its Smart Wireless products, designed for use with wireless networks at manufacturing plants.
GE Sensing's decision to use TSMP will help further boost Dust Networks' mesh networking technology, says Rob Conant, Dust's cofounder and VP of business development. GE Sensing's customers, he adds, also stand to gain from using TSMP-based sensors. "Wireless sensor networking technology will allow customers to measure and control more for less, resulting in lower costs, better energy efficiency and better productivity," says Conant. "Dust and GE Sensing's partnership will accelerate these benefits for GE Sensing's customers."
