MARINE: MiddlewAre for resource and mIssion-oriented sensor NEtworks

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) operate in a highly heterogeneous and dynamic scenario. On one hand, there is a wide range of potential applications for WSNs, each one with different features and requirements and defining a different mission for the sensor nodes to accomplish. On the other hand, the execution context regarding the devices, networks and the physical environment around is subject to frequent changes. In order to achieve the best network performance while meeting requirements of different application missions and contexts, it is crucial to endow the WSN with customization and adaptation capabilities. Such capabilities should be preferably provided by a middleware layer that translates application missions to network configuration in a transparent way for the final users and client applications. This middleware should also provide facilities to program the WSN nodes, to access sensor generated data and to promote interoperability among different applications and networks. To tackle these challenges, we propose MARINE (MiddlewAre for Resource and mIssion-oriented sensor NEtworks), a WSN middleware built on REST and microkernel architectural patterns. MARINE tailors the WSN to requirements of each application mission while saving the overall resource consumption in sensor nodes.