A Synergy of the Wireless Sensor Network and the Data Center System

In recent years, data centers have emerged to be an increasingly important computing infrastructure. It is shown that wireless sensor networks (sensor nets) can provide fine-grained measurements in data centers, and achieve better control of the data center platform for energy efficiency. However, the usage of sensor nets has so far been limited to auxiliary functions, such as sensory data collection across a data center. We argue that the combined computational and networking capability of a sensor network enables it to interact with the clusters in a much more sophisticated way and enhance essential functions in a data center. We have designed a Cluster-Area Sensor Network (CASN) to improve the cluster management and operational security in the system. Implemented with TelosB motes, CASN can be easily deployed in a cluster, with sensor nodes attached in an ad hoc manner to servers, and provides key system functions including cluster-wide command dissemination and verification of physical presence. Experimental results show that CASN has 85% success rate in verifying physical locations of servers with coarse-grained localization when the threshold is 3 meters, and incurs small latency in cluster-wide command dissemination.