Service-Oriented Sensor-Actuator Networks

                          Abdelmounaam Rezgui, PhD
                                Virginia Tech

                               March 27, 2008



                                  Abstract

We propose service-oriented sensor-actuator networks (SOSANETs) as a new
paradigm for building the next generation of customizable, open,
interoperable sensor-actuator networks. In SOSANETs, nodes expose their
capabilities to applications in the form of service profiles. A node's
service profile consists of a set of services (i.e., sensing and actuation
capabilities) that it provides and the quality of service (QoS) parameters
associated with those services (delay, accuracy, freshness, etc.). SOSANETs
provide the benefits of both application-specific SANETs and generic
SANETs. We first introduce a query model and an architecture for SOSANETs.
The proposed query model offers a simple, uniform query interface whereby
applications specify sensing and actuation queries independently from any
specific deployment of the underlying SOSANET. We then present (RACER
(Reliable Adaptive serviCe-driven Efficient Routing), a modular routing
protocol suite for SOSANETs. (RACER uses an efficient service-aware routing
approach that aggressively reduces downstream traffic by translating
service profiles into efficient paths. It supports QoS by dynamically
adapting each node's routing behavior and service profile according to the
current context of that node, i.e. number of pending queries and number and
type of messages to be routed. Finally, (RACER achieves high end-to-end
reliability through a scalable reputation-based approach in which each node
is able to locally estimate the next hop of the most reliable path to the
sink. To evaluate the proposed service-oriented architecture, we
implemented TinySOA, a prototype SOSANET built on top of TinyOS with (RACER
as its routing mechanism. TinySOA is designed as a set of layers with a
loose interaction model that enables several cross-layer optimization
options. We conducted an evaluation of TinySOA that included a comparison
with TinyDB. The obtained empirical results show that TinySOA achieves
significant improvements on many aspects including energy consumption,
scalability, reliability and response time.


                                  Biography

    Abdelmounaam Rezgui received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Computer
    Science from Virginia Tech and Purdue University respectively.
    Abdelmounaam is a research scientist in the PitLab at Virginia Tech.
    His current research involves the NASA-funded SESDI (Semantically-
    Enabled Scientific Data Integration) project. His primary research
    interests are in the areas of sensor networks, Web services, and
    software architectures. His current contributions include TinySOA, a
    service-oriented software architecture for sensor-actuator networks,
    and µRACER, a Reliable Adaptive serviCe-driven Efficient Routing
    protocol suite for sensor networks. He also contributed to Web-based
    GISs, semantic integration and interoperability of GIS database
    systems, and trust management for Web services. Abdelmounaam authored
    or co-authored 37 papers in peer-reviewed journals, books, and
    conference proceedings. He served or serves as a member of the
    technical program committee of several conferences and workshops. He
    also served as an invited panel member at the 2007 NSF International
    Workshop on Theoretical and Algorithmic Aspects of Sensor and Ad-hoc
    Networks (WTASA'2007). Abdelmounaam is a member of IEEE and Upsilon Pi
    Epsilon.