Building Sensor Filter Grids: Information Architecture for the Data Deluge

We discuss a general architectural approach to knowledge and information management and delivery in distributed systems. Our approach is based on the recognition that time-stamped, streaming information message units form the core of seemingly disparate systems that range from online sensors and scientific instruments to Web information retrieval. Globally distributable grid services manage these information streams. Geographical information system services provide exemplary realizations of this picture and may be used as a model for other scientific domains. With this unified architecture in place, we may begin to consider the problems of information integration as equivalent to sensor federation.