Sensation: a middleware integration platform for pervasive applications in wireless sensor networks

In this paper we focus on the issue of application development for wireless sensor networks (WSN). Currently, such networks are extensively used in various business domains. However, their highly customized operating systems and application middleware render the application development for multiple WSNs rather cumbersome. Applications based on multiple WSNs are typical in the emerging pervasive computing paradigm adopted in numerous domains (e.g., telemedicine). A WSN can be considered as a source of information similarly to a database. Motivated by the layered driver approach introduced in the ODBC/JDBC frameworks, we propose a middleware integration architecture. Our architecture presents a unified and developer-friendly interface and abstract data model towards the application. Such interface conceals the peculiarities of the underlying WSNs as their coordination and data retrieval software is integrated in the lower layer of the proposed middleware framework. We present the design of the discussed architecture that is based on open standards like XML.