A software-based networking solution for chemical and biological sensors

This paper reports on three real-world examples of remotely networked chemical and biological sensors. In the first example, two nodes of chemical sensors, separated by 300 km, are connected to a third node which is in a network operations center. In the second example, sensors in two separate remote locations are connected via wired and wireless Ethernet networks to independent command centers. In the third example, a chemical gas cloud is detected and its position is calculated based on real-time weather inputs and atmospheric plume modeling. A software-based framework, that is sensor agnostic, has been created to facilitate communications between these internet protocol (IP)-enabled sensors. Furthermore, a custom programming language allows for limited, automated decision-making based on processed sensor output, and alerts are displayed on a web-based, graphical user interface (GUI).