MASTAQ: a middleware architecture for sensor applications with statistical quality constraints

We present the design goals and functional components of MASTAQ, a data management middleware for pervasive applications that utilize sensor data. MASTAQ allows applications to specify their quality-of information (QoI) preferences (in terms of statistical metrics over the data) independent of the underlying network topology. It then achieves energy efficiency by adaptively activating and querying only the subset of sensor nodes needed to meet the target QoI bounds. We also present a closed-loop feedback mechanism based on broadcasting of activation probabilities, which allows MASTAQ to activate the appropriate number of sensors without requiring any inter-sensor coordination or knowledge of the actual deployment.