A middleware for fast and flexible sensor network deployment

TLDR

Sensor network deployment is hindered by heterogeneous software and hardware platforms, making application development tedious and time‑consuming. We introduce Global Sensor Networks (GSN) middleware to eliminate repetitive implementation of identical functionalities across platforms, enabling flexible integration, fast deployment, distributed querying, filtering, and dynamic configuration adaptation. GSN’s virtual sensor abstraction uses XML deployment descriptors and SQL queries to integrate sensor data, and in this demonstration it supports dynamic reconfiguration, on‑the‑fly addition of sensor networks, and graphical monitoring of changes. The GSN implementation is available at http://globalsn.sourceforge.net/.

Abstract

A key problem in current sensor network technology is the heterogeneity of the available software and hardware platforms which makes deployment and application development a tedious and time consuming task. To minimize the unnecessary and repetitive implementation of identical functionalities for different platforms, we present our Global Sensor Networks (GSN) middleware which supports the flexible integration and discovery of sensor networks and sensor data, enables fast deployment and addition of new platforms, provides distributed querying, filtering, and combination of sensor data, and supports the dynamic adaption of the system configuration during operation. GSN's central concept is the virtual sensor abstraction which enables the user to declaratively specify XML-based deployment descriptors in combination with the possibility to integrate sensor network data through plain SQL queries over local and remote sensor data sources. In this demonstration, we specifically focus on the deployment aspects and allow users to dynamically reconfigure the running system, to add new sensor networks on the fly, and to monitor the effects of the changes via a graphical interface. The GSN implementation is available from http://globalsn.sourceforge.net/.