Building Pervasive Services Using Flock Sensor Network and Flock Container Middleware

Abstract

Sensor networks, ad-hoc networking and supporting infrastructure (e.g. middleware) are major building blocks for pervasive computing and pervasive services. Our experience has made it clear that sensor networks, and in particular our flock sensor network, have scarce support for application development needs. To provide for rapid development of pervasive services based on ingested sensor data from sensor networks we have developed both a sensor network and an accompanying infrastructure support (e.g. middleware). The sensor network protocols have been designed to meet the disconnection and power consumption requirements often found as a result of intrinsic properties of mobile sensor networks. Existing (enterprise) middleware platforms have severe limitations for the creation of services that need access to for example the local file system or external/local sensors. The component based programming model imposed by such middleware systems has however proven itself useful for the production of service oriented applications. We have created a container based middleware platform, similar to enterprise middleware systems but without their limitations. This platform makes it easier to create pervasive, service oriented, applications possibly based on data from sensor networks.