Toward Best Performance of Node's Radio Module Setting for Use in IoT-Based Maritime Petroleum Waste Recovery Prototype System

The IoT paradigm continues to expand as its potential helps businesses to prosper and be more competitive. Its structure is comprised of several units, the sensors being a mainstay. Among fundamental questions raised in the context of IoT design and implementation are: Which sensor to choose from among the existing options? How to configure it for optimal performance? To respond to these questions, this study compares two radio modules with different settings to select the best for IoT-based maritime petroleum waste recovery use case needs. This latter is a small-scale system to simulate the transmission of ship-generated oily waste tank levels. The experimentation is managed within a closed area. The requirement for the distance is up to 50 m, while the data packet size is 40 bytes. There was no notable preference for a radio module over the other, as the experimentation results showed proof of the superiority of one solution over the other depending on the current assessment criterion (i.e., distance or data packet size). Thus, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) tool has been applied to make an objective multi-criteria choice that considers the case constraints and the sensors’ performance. The outcome of this paper will be integrated into a larger research project to develop an end-to-end prototype for the collection, transmission, processing and dashboard display of tank filling status of oily waste generated by ships and stored in ports. This system will provide the external reception and collection managers with real-time tracking and monitoring features to carry out efficient IoT-based collection operations and eventual recovery.