SENSOR AGENT CLOUD - A CLOUD-BASED AUTONOMIC SYSTEM FOR PHYSICAL SENSOR NODES MANAGEMENT

摘要

An embedded sensor network is a network of sensor nodes deployed in the physical world that interacts with the environment. Each sensor node is a physically small and relatively inexpensive computer that has one or more sensors. These sensor nodes are often networked, allowing them to communicate and cooperate with each other to monitor the environment. Typically, an embedded sensor network is controlled by its own applications that can access the sensor nodes within the network. On the other hand, the sensor nodes cannot be easily accessed by applications outside of the network. Moreover, even within the same network, different applications might encounter a race condition when they are trying to access a sensor node simultaneously. The issue is related to system management. However, not much research has been done with a focus on the management of sensor nodes. In the past few years, Cloud computing has emerged as a new computing paradigm to provide reliable resources, software, and data on demand. As for resources, essentially, Cloud computing services provide users with virtual servers. Users can utilize virtual servers without concerning about their locations and specifications. With such an inspiration, this paper proposes a system, Sensor Agent Cloud, where users can access the sensor nodes without worrying about their locations and detailed specifications. Sensor Agent Cloud virtualizes a physical sensor node as a virtual "sensor agent". Users can use and control sensor agents with standard functions. Each sensor agent operates on behalf of its user. The mandatory coordination of these sensor agents is related to the system management. Therefore, Sensor Agent Cloud must be an autonomic system that manages itself with minimum human interference. In addition, Sensor Agent Cloud supports international standard technologies regarding programming and agent communication (C and IEEE FIPA standard). Thus, it is expected that the proposed Sensor Agent Cloud can enhance the applicability and usability of embedded sensor networks in many application areas.