2016 5th International Conference on Informatics, Electronics and Vision (ICIEV)
LASER Based Security System Using Wireless
Sensor Network and GPRS/GSM Technology for
Inland Aquaculture in Bangladesh
Sopan Sarkar
Department of Applied Physics, Electronics and
Communication Engineering
University of Chittagong
Chittagong, Bangladesh
sopansarkar@gmail.com
Abstract Our paper deals with the design and implementation
of a novel LASER based security system for inland aquaculture
such as Shrimp/prawn farming perspective to Bangladesh. The
system implements LASER as a mean of detecting intruders. A
wireless sensor network based on nRF24L01 trans-receiver is
used to communicate with the gateway and the sensors. The
number of LASERs obstructed is determined by LDRs attached
to an Arduino board; which is programmed to take decisions
whether to sound an alarm or call a desired mobile number
through a GPRS/GSM network; depending on the number of
LASERs obstructed. The proposed work has been done and
verified in real life. The system was satisfactory in terms of both
cost and security compared to other existing systems available in
Bangladesh.
Keywords-LASER; LDR; Wireless sensor network; nRF24l01
trans-receiver; GPRS; Aquaculture; Security system
I. INTRODUCTION
Fisheries and aquaculture is the second most important
sector in the export earning of Bangladesh. It produces 2.5% of
the global production of shrimp [1]. According to [2], a total of
54.54% of the total fish were cultured in inland closed water.
Moreover, fishes provide us with 80% of animal protein and
7% of the total protein supply [1].
A close study of aquaculture in Bangladesh was made
regarding cost, labor and security issues. It was found that the
initial cost in aquaculture is very high. So losses due to security
issues have led many investors/farmers to lose their interest.
Moreover, the existing security systems like Video-regislator,
Net video spy, computer software security system etc. are quite
costly. So the need of a smart and cost worthy security system
has leaded us to the development of the proposed system.
The most common security issue faced by the owners of
aquaculture pond in Bangladesh is stealing of fishes from the
ponds. According to [3], the risk increases when the
aquaculture ponds are far from the farmer's home and in most
cases surveillance requires labor input, but the returns are not
immediate. These constraints have limited the feasibility of
aquaculture, especially among households headed by females,
978-1-5090-1269-5/16/$31.00 2016 IEEE
519
Ariful Islam
Department of Applied Physics, Electronics and
Communication Engineering
University of Chittagong
Chittagong, Bangladesh
ariful@cu.ac.bd
who are unable to protect their assets, on their own, against an
unfavorable social environment.
The intruders generally use huge fishing nets to capture and
steal fishes. Since most of the investors/farmers in this sector
have to take loans from banks, such a loss creates a great
impact on their economy. Moreover, they are quite unwilling to
invest in highly configured security system in the market.
The idea of LASER (Light amplification by stimulated
emission of radiation) based security system with LDR (Light-
dependent resistor) was shown in [4], in which an alarm was
sounded when an intruder as detected. LASER is highly
directional and travels a very long range without losing
sufficient power [5]. LASER light even goes through long
distance without scattering effect. Its also visible only at the
source and incident point; otherwise invisible [4]. In dark, a
LDR can have a very high resistance (several mega ohms
(M)), while in the light; it can have a low resistance in the
order of ohms [6]. This property of LDR helps to sense
LASER.
The use of wireless sensor network for security purpose is
shown in [7]. Wireless sensor network (WSN) is termed as
spatially distributed sensors which can pass data through the
network to a main location and are used to monitor different
conditions of the physical world [8]. Wireless sensor network
has been used in habitat monitoring [9], heath monitoring [10,
11], bio motion [12], security system etc. The most popular
technologies in the field of wireless sensor network are
Bluetooth [13, 14], ZigBee [7, 15], Wi-Fi [16] and RF trans-
receiver [17]. The use of nRF24L01 trans-receiver for wireless
sensor networking is shown in [18-20]. The nRF24L01
provides 2Mbps data rate and 125 RF channel operations with
very low power consumption. The nRF24L01 has a complete
OSI Link Layer in hardware which simplifies the upper layer
protocol [21].
A GPRS/GSM based security system was shown in [22].
The advantage of GPRS/GSM was shown in [22-24]. In
reference [22], the personal in authority was informed about
any intrusion through short message service (SMS).
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Our security system consists of LASERs embedded on one B. GPRS/GSM Gateway

side of the aquaculture pond and LDR on the opposite side.
The number of LASERs used will depend on the size of the The gateway consists of Arduino micro-controller board, an
pond. In conjunction with that system, we have used a wireless nRF24L01 trans-receiver, a GPRS/GSM module and an alarm
sensor network to communicate with the sensor nodes and a circuit. The simplified block diagram of the gateway is shown
GPRS/GSM gateway. The preferred device used in the design in Fig 3.
was 2.4 GHz nRF24L01 trans-receiver modules. GPRS/GSM
technology was used to inform the authority about any
intrusion through a call. The real life testing of the system was
done using a demo model of the pond. We used an array of six
LASERs & LDRs for this purpose. The system has built with
low cost and high performance.
The organization of this paper is as follows. The System
architecture is introduced in section II, the implementation of
the sensor nodes and gateway and their working is detailed in
section III, and followed by performance study in section IV
and conclusion in section V.

II. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

Our proposed model of the security system consists of two
main parts:
A. Sensor Node
The sensor node consists of Arduino micro-controller
board, LASER & LDR array, and an nRF24L01 trans-receiver
module. A simplified block diagram of the sensor node is
shown in Fig 1.
Figure 2. Configuration of a sensor node
A wireless communication system is required to inform the
owner of the pond wirelessly. Here, we will use the existing
infrastructure of the cell phone network for communication.
So, we dont require the construction of transmitter and
receiver unit. For wireless communication a GPRS/GSM
modem is used at the transmitter end. Similarly, a cell phone is
used as the receiver at the user end. A Subscriber Identification
Module (SIM) is assigned to the GPRS/GSM modem. By
receiving call from this SIM, the user (owner) will know that
an intrusion has occurred at the pond site.

Figure 1. Block diagram of sensor node

The sensor node consists of six LASER and LDR unit

placed equidistantly along the edge of the aquaculture pond.
LASERs are placed at one end and the LDRs at the opposite
end. A LASER-LDR pair is maid collinear; since LASER is
highly directional and a slight deviation in angle will result in
error. The LDRs are well shielded from external light. The
whole arrangement is rigidly set up. The sensor node
practically implemented is shown in Fig 2. Figure 3. Block diagram of GPRS/GSM gateway

In the design, star tropology was used in order to form the
network between the sensor nodes and GPRS/GSM gateway.
Star tropology is used because of its ease to setup and modify.
Moreover, the aquaculture ponds are generally arranged
systematically within a small range of area. So the tropology
fully satisfies our need. Fig 4 shows the arrangement of sensor
nodes with the GPRS/GSM gateway using star tropology. Also
the configuration of the gateway is shown in Fig 5.
Figure 4. Arrangement of the sensor nodes using star tropology
Figure 5. Configuration of the GPRS/GSM gateway
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III. METHODOLOGY
The working of the security system is explained in details
below:
A. Working of the Sensor Node
The LASER detector circuit is a voltage divider network
consisting of a LDR and a series resistor as shown in Fig 6.
The junction of the two is fed into an analog pin of the Arduino
board. Thus the Arduino takes analog reading of the sensors
making the system more versatile. It takes two initial reading of
the sensors, one with LASERs on and the other with LASERs
turned off. Then it averages the two readings to get a center
value. Any reading above this center value is considered high
and that below as low. This process helps reduce the
environmental effects on the sensors.
Figure 6. LASER detector circuit
As stated above each sensor node consist of an array of six
LASERs and LDRs. Generally, a poacher intends to use huge
fishing nets to steal fishes from the pond. When any object
obstructs the path of the LASER from falling on the LDR; the
resistance of the LDR increases. This makes the corresponding
pin of the Arduino low. Arduino than calculates the number of
LASERs obstructed. Two conditions arise in this situation.
When the number of LASERs obstructed is less than
two, it may either be net or a leaf or fishing rod. In
this situation the Arduino at the sensor node sends the
character A to the main board through the
nRF24L01 trans-receiver module.
When the number of LASERs obstructed is more than
two, there are definitely poachers stealing fishes from
the pond. The LASERs are either obstructed by the
net or by the poachers themselves. In this situation the
Arduino sends the character C.
The nRF24L01 are set to transmit mode in the sensor
nodes. Each nRF24L01 both in sensor node and gateway is
assigned a definite address of 32bit.

B. Working of the GPRS/GSM Gateway
The GPRS/GSM gateway consists of an nRF24L01 module
which is set to receive mode. It continuously scans for data
from the sensor nodes. It scans each sensor serially. When an
intrusion occurs a definite character is send from the sensor
nodes.
When the character received is A, the Arduino board
turns on the alarm trough a relay.
When the character received is C, the Arduino board
signals the GPRS/GSM modem to call a desired
number saved in the SIM phonebook.
The flow chart of the system is shown in Fig 6
. [2]
Figure 7. Flow chart showing the working of the security system
IV. PERFORMANCE STUDY
For testing the level of security we have implemented our
system on six dummy ponds as shown in Fig 2. The dummy
ponds were placed at approximately 30 meters away from the
GSM/GPRS gateway in an open field. We used six LASER
and LDR units to verify the security conditions as stated above.
The LASERs used had a maximum output power of 5 mili-
watts and 650 nano-meters wavelength. When two or less
LASERs were obstructed, the alarm was sounded. When the
number of LASER obstructed was more than two, a call was
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given to a desired number saved in the phonebook. The
nRF24L01 worked fine within the given range. Successful
communications were established between the sensor nodes
and the GSM/GPRS gateway.
V. CONCLUSION
Security in indoor aquaculture has become a dying need in
Bangladesh as lot of money is invested in this sector. Our
motto was to develop a security system which will provide
both high security and be cheaper in cost. Our security system
is less bulky as it requires less components and wiring and it
has very low power requirements. Any damaged part in the
system can easily be removed and replaced; and all the
components are easily available. Moreover, the security
system can be used in other sector such as perimeter security
such as in banks, offices, museums etc. with very little
modification. So we are hopeful, our security system will
provide investors in aquaculture with the required security.
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