(Archived) - Sensors

Media Independent Transport Service for Ambient Intelligence

dcorujo — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:35:51 +0000

The evolution on ambient intelligence technologies, such as sensor networks, propelled a universe of very diverse types of both data and hardware equipment creating one of the most heterogeneous network environments. This diversity brings to light the main issue we aim to address in this paper: the need for a common ground that enables communications between the different heterogeneous equipments and technologies. Starting from the well-established IEEE 802.21 Media Independent Handover standard, we propose its mechanisms and structure to
be extended to provide the needed common ground for communication in ambient intelligence scenarios. In this work, we extend 802.21 to include sensor information, enabling different types of equipment and network technologies to
communicate with each other under a common standard contributing to a truly heterogeneous network framework. To conclude, we address its viability through a comparison with other known solutions for communication on sensing devices.

A Framework for the Connectivity of an Internet of Things

dcorujo — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:33:03 +0000

The evolution of telecommunications has allowed the
coupling of networking features to an ever-increasing plethora
of devices, enabling their connectivity and berthing of an
Internet of Things (IoT). However, the assorted nature of such
“things” implies disparate specifications, requirements and
interfacing, for interaction with high-level decision modules,
services and agents involved in the most distinct kind of
scenarios. The joint operation of all networkable things in a
truly integrated IoT vision requires a flexible framework able to
facilitate interfacing with different elements and concepts. In
this paper we present a framework that builds over the concept
of Media Independence, further enhancing it to encompass the
abstraction of different “things”, by providing the means for
accessing their different interfacing procedures. We highlight
the feasibility and flexibility of this framework by introducing it
into an IoT scenario, enabling a flexible way for interface
retrieval and control of different entities, paving the way for a
truly universal and dynamic connectivity vision.

A Framework for Flexible Sensor Information Dissemination

msilva — Mon, 16 May 2011 12:42:45 +0000

The integration of the digital world into every aspect of our lives is becoming more and more preeminent. Nowadays, not only humans but also devices and the environments where we dwell are also able to provide their own information, through the usage of sensors. Through their interconnection over communication networks, sensors enable Ambient Intelligent scenarios achieving a true Internet of Things, and crossing the gap between computer systems and the real world. However, the different sensing devices and information generated by them, are of such disparate nature that it becomes increasingly difficult to access and make use of such heterogeneous data. In this paper, we propose a framework which not only considers a media independent information access to sensors and their supplied data, but is also flexible enough to configure and provide different means to best transport collected sensor information via wireless gateways, facilitating its deployment in different scenarios. We demonstrate its usefulness by providing a throughput efficient approach towards the collection and dissemination of sensing data, through sensing information compression and aggregation of multiple sources.