title: Performance of a protected wireless sensor network in a fire. Analysis of fire spread and data transmission.
abstract: The paper deals with a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) as a reliable solution for capturing the kinematics of a fire front spreading over a fuel bed. To provide reliable information in fire studies and support fire fighting strategies, a Wireless Sensor Network must be able to perform three sequential actions: 1) sensing thermal data in the open as the gas temperature; 2) detecting a fire i.e., the spatial position of a flame; 3) tracking the fire spread during its spatial and temporal evolution. One of the great challenges in performing fire front tracking with a WSN is to avoid the destruction of motes by the fire. This paper therefore shows the performance of Wireless Sensor Network when the motes are protected with a thermal insulation dedicated to track a fire spreading across vegetative fuels on a field scale. The resulting experimental WSN is then used in series of wildfire experiments performed in the open in vegetation areas ranging in size from 50 to 1,000 m(2).
authors.affiliation: University of Corsica/UMR CNRS SPE, Quartier Grossetti 20250 Corte, France; E-Mails:  santucci@univ-corse.fr  (J.-F.S.);  gentili@univ-corse.fr  (E.G.);  silvani@univ-corse.fr  (X.S.);  morandin@univ-corse.fr  (F.M.).
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Antoine-Santoni
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Santucci
authors.forename: Emmanuelle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Gentili
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Silvani
authors.forename: Frederic
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Morandini