The invention provides a plug-and-work sensor interface device named “puck” for fast and easy deployment of various types of serial devices, which include commercial off-the-shelf and custom-made sensors and instruments, in a distributed, dynamic oceanic observing network. In an embodiment, each puck is removably attached and electrically coupled to a specific sensor to be deployed. The puck comprises a non-volatile memory for associating and storing arbitrary binary information about the sensor and a microprocessor for controlling how the information is read from and written into the non-volatile memory. The sensor information may include unique sensor identifier, sensor metadata, sensor device driver, etc. The puck itself does not execute any of the device code; rather, a host retrieves the sensor information from the puck when the puck is plugged in. The retrieval can be done automatically or semi-automatically with user interaction. After introducing the sensor to the host, the puck retires into a pass mode, allowing the host to communicate directly with the sensor. According to an aspect of the invention, the deployment of any serial device essentially consists of the steps of removably attaching a puck to the serial device and plugging the puck into a host.
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