Process-Based Design and Integration of Wireless Sensor Network Applications

Abstract Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSNs) are distributed sensor and actuator networks that monitor and control real-world phenomena, enabling the integration of the physical with the virtual world. They are used in domains like building automation, control systems, remote healthcare, etc., which are all highly process-driven. Today, tools and insights of Business Process Modeling (BPM) are not used to model WSN logic, as BPM focuses mostly on the coordination of people and IT systems and neglects the integration of embedded IT. WSN development still requires significant special-purpose, low-level, and manual coding of process logic. By exploiting similarities between WSN applications and business processes, this work aims to create a holistic system enabling the modeling and execution of executable processes that integrate, coordinate, and control WSNs. Concretely, we present a WSNspecific extension for Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) and a compiler that transforms the extended BPMN models into WSN-specific code to distribute process execution over both a WSN and a standard business process engine. The developed tool-chain allows modeling of an independent control loop for the WSN.

Enabling High-Level Application Development for the Internet of Things

Application development in the Internet of Things (IoT) is challenging because it involves dealing with a wide range of related issues such as lack of separation of concerns, and lack of high-level of abstractions to address both the large scale and heterogeneity. Moreover, stakeholders involved in the application development have to address issues that can be attributed to different life-cycles phases. when developing applications. First, the application logic has to be analyzed and then separated into a set of distributed tasks for an underlying network. Then, the tasks have to be implemented for the specific hardware. Apart from handling these issues, they have to deal with other aspects of life-cycle such as changes in application requirements and deployed devices. Several approaches have been proposed in the closely related fields of wireless sensor network, ubiquitous and pervasive computing, and software engineering in general to address the above challenges. However, existing approaches only cover limited subsets of the above mentioned challenges when applied to the IoT. This paper proposes an integrated approach for addressing the above mentioned challenges. The main contributions of this paper are: (1) a development methodology that separates IoT application development into different concerns and provides a conceptual framework to develop an application, (2) a development framework that implements the development methodology to support actions of stakeholders. The development framework provides a set of modeling languages to specify each development concern and abstracts the scale and heterogeneity related complexity. It integrates code generation, task-mapping, and linking techniques to provide automation. Code generation supports the application development phase by producing a programming framework that allows stakeholders to focus on the application logic, while our mapping and linking techniques together support the deployment phase by producing device-specific code to result in a distributed system collaboratively hosted by individual devices. Our evaluation based on two realistic scenarios shows that the use of our approach improves the productivity of stakeholders involved in the application development

Sensor function virtualization to support distributed intelligence in the internet of things

It is estimated that-by 2020-billion devices will be connected to the Internet. This number not only includes TVs, PCs, tablets and smartphones, but also billions of embedded sensors that will make up the "Internet of Things" and enable a whole new range of intelligent services in domains such as manufacturing, health, smart homes, logistics, etc. To some extent, intelligence such as data processing or access control can be placed on the devices themselves. Alternatively, functionalities can be outsourced to the cloud. In reality, there is no single solution that fits all needs. Cooperation between devices, intermediate infrastructures (local networks, access networks, global networks) and/or cloud systems is needed in order to optimally support IoT communication and IoT applications. Through distributed intelligence the right communication and processing functionality will be available at the right place. The first part of this paper motivates the need for such distributed intelligence based on shortcomings in typical IoT systems. The second part focuses on the concept of sensor function virtualization, a potential enabler for distributed intelligence, and presents solutions on how to realize it

makeSense: Simplifying the Integration of Wireless Sensor Networks into Business Processes

A wide gap exists between the state of the art in developing Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) software and current practices concerning the design, execution, and maintenance of business processes. WSN software is most often developed based on low-level OS abstractions, whereas business process development leverages high-level languages and tools. This state of affairs places WSNs at the fringe of industry. The makeSense system addresses this problem by simplifying the integration of WSNs into business processes. Developers use BPMN models extended with WSN-specific constructs to specify the application behavior across both traditional business process execution environments and the WSN itself, which is to be equipped with application-specific software. We compile these models into a high-level intermediate language—also directly usable by WSN developers—and then into OS-specific deployment-ready binaries. Key to this process is the notion of meta-abstraction, which we define to capture fundamental patterns of interaction with and within the WSN. The concrete realization of meta-abstractions is application-specific; developers tailor the system configuration by selecting concrete abstractions out of the existing codebase or by providing their own. Our evaluation of makeSense shows that i) users perceive our approach as a significant advance over the state of the art, providing evidence of the increased developer productivity when using makeSense; ii) in large-scale simulations, our prototype exhibits an acceptable system overhead and good scaling properties, demonstrating the general applicability of makeSense; and, iii) our prototype—including the complete tool-chain and underlying system support—sustains a real-world deployment where estimates by domain specialists indicate the potential for drastic reductions in the total cost of ownership compared to wired and conventional WSN-based solutions

CollaborationBus: An Editor for the Easy Configuration of Complex Ubiquitous Environment

Early sensor-based infrastructures were often developed by experts with a thorough knowledge of base technology for sensing information, for processing the captured data, and for adapting the system’s behaviour accordingly. In this paper we argue that also end-users should be able to configure Ubiquitous Computing environments. We introduce the CollaborationBus application: a graphical editor that provides abstractions from base technology and thereby allows multifarious users to configure Ubiquitous Computing environments. By composing pipelines users can easily specify the information flows from selected sensors via optional filters for processing the sensor data to actuators changing the system behaviour according to the users’ wishes. Users can compose pipelines for both home and work environments. An integrated sharing mechanism allows them to share their own compositions, and to reuse and build upon others’ compositions. Real-time visualisations help them understand how the information flows through their pipelines. In this paper we present the concept, implementation, and early user feedback of the CollaborationBus application

Infrastructure for Engineered Emergence on Sensor/Actuator Networks

The ability to control emergent phenomena depends on decomposingthem into aspects susceptible to independent engineering. Forspatial self-managing systems, the amorphous-medium abstraction lets youseparate the systemÂs specification from its implementation

Implementation and Deployment Evaluation of the DMAMAC Protocol for Wireless Sensor Actuator Networks

The increased application of wireless technologies including Wireless Sensor Actuator Networks (WSAN) in industry has given rise to a plethora of protocol designs. These designs target metrics ranging from energy efficiency to real-time constraints. Protocol design typically starts with a requirements specification, and continues with analytic and model-based simulation analysis. State-of- the-art network simulators provide extensive physical environment emulation, but still have limitations due to model abstractions. Deployment testing on actual hardware is therefore vital in order to validate implementability and usability in the real environment. The contribution of this article is a deployment testing of the Dual-Mode Adaptive MAC (DMAMAC) protocol. DMAMAC is an energy efficient protocol recently proposed for real-time process control applications and is based on Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) in conjunction with dual-mode operation. A main challenge in implementing DMAMAC is the use of a dynamic superframe structure. We have successfully implemented the protocol on the Zolertia Z1 platform using TinyOS (2x). Our scenario- based evaluation shows minimal packet loss and smooth mode-switch operation, thus indicating a reliable implementation of the DMAMAC protocol.publishedVersio

Implementation and Deployment Evaluation of the DMAMAC Protocol for Wireless Sensor Actuator Networks

The increased application of wireless technologies including Wireless Sensor Actuator Networks (WSAN) in industry has given rise to a plethora of protocol designs. These designs target metrics ranging from energy efficiency to real-time constraints. Protocol design typically starts with a requirements specification, and continues with analytic and model-based simulation analysis. State-of- the-art network simulators provide extensive physical environment emulation, but still have limitations due to model abstractions. Deployment testing on actual hardware is therefore vital in order to validate implementability and usability in the real environment. The contribution of this article is a deployment testing of the Dual-Mode Adaptive MAC (DMAMAC) protocol. DMAMAC is an energy efficient protocol recently proposed for real-time process control applications and is based on Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) in conjunction with dual-mode operation. A main challenge in implementing DMAMAC is the use of a dynamic superframe structure. We have successfully implemented the protocol on the Zolertia Z1 platform using TinyOS (2x). Our scenario- based evaluation shows minimal packet loss and smooth mode-switch operation, thus indicating a reliable implementation of the DMAMAC protocol.publishedVersio