On the integration of sensor networks and general purpose IT infrastructure

摘要

Integrating sensor networks with general purpose IT infrastructure has been confirmed as a complex problem in the development and management of industrial sensor applications. This integration is complex because a single general purpose application queries multiple sensor networksand a single sensor network has to serve multiple applications. This paper identifies three challenges that need to be addressed by middleware in order to enable this integration: federated management, interoperability and adaptability across the whole infrastructure. The paper presents a taxonomy of middleware solutions and positions the identified challenges in a survey of state-of-the-art middleware research we conducted earlier. By looking at sensor network middleware from an application (business) perspective, we come to the conclusion that time may have come to consolidate middleware efforts presented during the past years.