Extending BPMN for Wireless Sensor Networks

TLDR: The properties of WSNs are explored and a set of BPMN extensions that fulfill these requirements are proposed and demonstrate that they are better suited for modeling WSN processes than standard BPMn.

Abstract: Wireless sensor/actuator networks (WSNs) are hard to program, in particular so for business domain experts that have a good understanding of how WSNs can best be used to improve business operations. This contributes to hampering WSN adoption by enterprises. As business process modeling languages such as the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) are well accessible to domain experts, they can be used as a tool to facilitate WSN programming. In this paper, we explore the properties of WSNs that set them apart from traditional IT systems and use these properties to derive requirements for BPMN extensions that are tailored to the specifics of WSNs. We furthermore propose a set of BPMN extensions that fulfill these requirements and demonstrate that they are better suited for modeling WSN processes than standard BPMN.

Figures

Table 2.1: BPMN XML Schema and MOF Meta-model Extension Element Mappings [SCV11]

Table 4.1: Solution Requirement Mapping

Figure 8.2: The place of this thesis work in the model-driven chain.

Table 6.1: Evaluation of the requirement “Models should be stable on minor WSN changes (R8)”.

Figure 6.2: The aggregation is now done at the “Room Controller” pool.

Figure 4.1: WSN Task class diagram.

Full text

Institute of Architecture of Application Systems
University of Stuttgart
Universitätsstraße 38
D–70569 Stuttgart
Diplomarbeit Nr. 3389
Extending BPMN for Wireless
Sensor Networks
C. Timurhan Sungur
Course of Study: Computer Science
Examiner: Frank Leymann
Supervisor:
Oliver Kopp, Patrik Spiess, Nina Oertel,
Sema Zor
Commenced: August 17, 2012
Completed: February 16, 2013
CR-Classification: H.4.1, K.1

Abstract
As the Wireless sensor/actuator networks (WSNs) started to be deployed in enterprise scenarios,
the need of integration of WSN applications with enterprise business processes has emerged.
Creation of the WSN applications in enterprises, however, requires much low-level programming,
and this causes the loss of focus on the high level goals. Therefore a model-driven approach
is needed. As Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is the de-facto standard of
modeling business processes, it is suitable for companies to use BPMN for the model-driven
approach. In this work, first we analyze the WSN properties, which distinguish them from
traditional IT systems. Thereafter, we analyze the general properties of BPMN which need
to be preserved to keep the common understanding that BPMN brings. As a result, we end
up with some properties that are relevant with modeling WSN processes in BPMN. From
these properties, we derive the requirements for modeling WSNs and propose some extensions
to standard BPMN. These extensions include a new type of task, a new type of pool and
a new grouping structure to set performance goals of the corresponding WSN. Afterwards,
we analyze the current state of art to compare our approach with other possible approaches.
Specifically, we compare our approach with standard BPMN, BPM4People extensions with
respect to requirements and show that why our proposals provide a more comprehensive and
suitable approach.
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Contents
1 Introduction 11
1.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.1.1 Reasons for Choosing BPMN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.1.2 Model-driven Development of WSNs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.2 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2 Background on WSNs and BPMN 19
2.1 WSN Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.1.1 Dynamic Addition and Removal of Wireless Sensor Nodes (WP1) . . . . 19
2.1.2 Categories of WSN Operations (WP2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.1.3 Limited Operations Available in WSNs (WP3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.1.4 Parallel Execution of the Same Process Logic in one Application (WP4) 20
2.1.5 Distributed Nature of WSN Applications (WP5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.1.6 Limited Resources and Error-prone Nature of WSN Nodes (WP6) . . . 21
2.1.7 Event-driven Nature of WSNs (WP7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.1.8 Different Type of Nodes (WP8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.1.9 Dense Deployment of Nodes (WP9) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.1.10 Different Interaction Patterns in WSNs (WP10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2 BPMN Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2.1 Dimensions of a Business Process Activity (BP1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2.2 Different Levels of Modeling (BP2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.2.3 Cognitive Effectiveness of BPMN (BP3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.2.4 Extensbility Mechanism of BPMN (BP4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.2.5 Modifiability of Process Models (BP5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3 Requirements for WSN-specific BPMN 31
3.1 Evaluation of WSN Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.1.1 Dynamic Addition and Removal of Wireless Sensor Nodes (WP1) . . . . 31
3.1.2 Categories of WSN Operations (WP2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.1.3 Limited Operations Available in WSNs (WP3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.1.4 Parallel Execution of the Same Process Logic in one Application (WP4) 32
3.1.5 Distributed Nature of WSN Applications (WP5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.1.6 Limited Resources and Error-prone Nature of WSN Nodes (WP6) . . . 32
3.1.7 Event-driven Nature of WSNs (WP7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.1.8 Different Type of Nodes (WP8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.1.9 Dense Deployment of Nodes (WP9) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
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Frequently asked questions

Q1. What have the authors contributed in "Extending bpmn for wireless sensor networks" ?

In this work, first the authors analyze the WSN properties, which distinguish them from traditional IT systems. Thereafter, the authors analyze the general properties of BPMN which need to be preserved to keep the common understanding that BPMN brings. From these properties, the authors derive the requirements for modeling WSNs and propose some extensions to standard BPMN. Afterwards, the authors analyze the current state of art to compare their approach with other possible approaches. Specifically, the authors compare their approach with standard BPMN, BPM4People extensions with respect to requirements and show that why their proposals provide a more comprehensive and suitable approach.