Middleware for Sensor Networks 

About: Middleware for Sensor Networks is an academic conference. The conference publishes majorly in the area(s): Wireless sensor network & Key distribution in wireless sensor networks. Over the lifetime, 21 publications have been published by the conference receiving 504 citations.

A survey of middleware for sensor networks: state-of-the-art and future directions

Abstract: In future computing environments, networked sensors will play an increasingly important role in mediating between the physical and virtual worlds. However, programming sensor networks, and the applications that depend on the data they produce, is extremely challenging. The need for suitable middleware to address this problem is evident. In the last few years, various middleware solutions for sensor networks have emerged. These differ in terms of their models for querying and data aggregation, and their assumptions about the topology and other characteristics of the network. Naturally, the assumptions made for each particular middleware limit its potential applicability. Most of the current solutions provide relatively simple query abstractions, and therefore are not suitable for applications that have sophisticated requirements for processing of sensor data in the network. This paper presents a survey and analysis of the current state-of-the art in the field, highlighting the open research challenges. It also draws on the authors' experience with developing middleware for context-aware systems - that is, systems that rely on sensor-derived data to intelligently adapt their behaviour - to propose some future directions for the development of middleware for sensor networks.

TeenyLIME: transiently shared tuple space middleware for wireless sensor networks

Abstract: Recent developments in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are pushing scenarios where application intelligence is no longer relegated to the fringes of the system (i.e., on a data sink running on a powerful node) rather it is distributed within the WSN itself.To support this scenario, we propose TeenyLIME, a tuple space model and middleware supporting applications where sensing and acting devices themselves drive the network behavior. In other words, the application core is not confined to the powerful sinks, rather it is deployed on the devices embedded within the physical world. Tuple space operations are used both for data collection as well as to effect coordination among sensing and acting devices. This paper describes the TeenyLIME model and corresponding middleware implementation.

Dynamic reconfiguration in sensor middleware

Abstract: Middleware solutions for sensor networks have so far mainly focused on communication abstractions, ad-hoc message routing protocols, and power conservation techniques. We argue that customisation and dynamic reconfiguration of sensor network middleware are additional important dimensions to consider. This paper describes a sensor middleware that can be customised to suit different sensor application types, and provides a reflective approach for co-ordinated network-wide dynamic reconfiguration of sensor behaviour. To evaluate our approach we illustrate customisation and dynamic reconfiguration of the Gridkit sensor middleware in a flood-monitoring scenario.

DAViM: a dynamically adaptable virtual machine for sensor networks

Abstract: Sensor networks are being deployed for substantial periods of activity, and are being used by multiple applications with possibly diverse requirements. Since manually upgrading or updating sensor software is often impossible, run-time software reconfiguration represents a considerable success factor for many practical usage scenarios of sensor networks. This paper presents DAViM, the Distrinet Adaptable Virtual Machine and describes how it allows to customize sensor behavior, to extend its functionality and to execute multiple applications in parallel. We have evaluated the proposed architecture by implementing a proof-of-concept prototype on micaZ hardware. First results indicate that it is already feasible to run the DAViM core on micaZ hardware, while memory requirements of the full DAViM implementation are close enough to fit on more recent sensor hardware.

Building virtual sensors and actuators over logical neighborhoods

Abstract: Recent trends in wireless sensor network (WSN) applications exhibit increasing degrees of decentralization. This is particularly true of scenarios where the data reported by sensors is used to control actuators affecting the environment. Implementing this control loop in a decentralized fashion is much more complex than in mainstream, single-sink, sense-only applications.In this paper we describe virtual nodes, a programming abstraction simplifying the development of decentralized WSN applications. The data acquired by a set of sensors can be collected, processed according to an application-provided aggregation function, and then perceived as the reading of a single virtual sensor. Dually, a virtual actuator provides a single entry point for distributing commands to a set of real actuator nodes. The set of physical nodes to be abstracted into a virtual one is specified using logical neighborhoods [11, 12]. Using virtual nodes, the programmer focuses on the application logic, rather than on low-level implementation details. We present the programming language constructs supporting virtual nodes, exemplify their use, and show that they can be implemented by making efficient use of communication resources.