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Generality Challenges and Approaches in WSNs

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Fadi Tirkawi
Fadi Tirkawi
Fadi Tirkawi
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Stefan Fischer at Universität zu Lübeck
Stefan Fischer
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Ignoring the generality in the design of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) applications limits their benefits. Furthermore, the possibilities of future extension and adaptation are also restricted. In this paper, several methods to enhance the generality in WSNs are explained. We have further evaluated the suitability of these methods in centralized and decentralized management scenarios.
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... They can be programmed to interact with the physical environment by means of sensors and actuators. Additionally, they present reduced dimensions and can be incorporated in a number of applications, including military, medical, industry, environmental tracking, home automation, surveillance systems, just to name a few (Tirkawi and Fischer [2009]). ...
... measurements or alarms) and sending out messages and receiving messages from users. A software agent can also work in computer networks by receiving and sending data, messages, and signals to possible remote destinations (Paolucci and Sacile [2004], Tirkawi and Fischer [2009]). Figure 1 shows a schematic representation of an agent model. The most important agents' characteristics are (Paolucci and Sacile [2004], Cerrada et al. [2007]): ...
... In WSANs the sensor nodes have limited resources such as reduced physical size, small memory, limited computation, small energy budget, and narrow bandwidth (Tirkawi and Fischer [2009]). A large group of this small and low-cost sensor nodes can be deployed to a domain of interest and form a distributed networking system, in which collaboration among several sensor nodes is crucial to overcome the limited sensing and processing capabilities of each other, to improve the reliability of the decision making process (Biswas et al. [2006]). ...
Multi-Agent Platform in WSAN Applications: A Time Synchronization Perspective
Conference Paper
  • Sep 2010
Research on wireless sensor and actuator networks has attracted considerable attention in the past few years. When dealing with monitoring and control over these infrastructures in industrial environments, distributed artificial intelligence techniques, under the form of agents, can be used to improve performance, in terms of autonomy, adaptability and robustness. In this context, synchronization of nodes' clocks is critical for the overall system performance. The paper focuses on developing a wireless sensor network multi-agent based architecture. A particular topology is proposed and general features and requirements for mobile agents described, namely, tasks and services, as well as communication and coordination mechanisms. In order to cope with offset and skew of nodes' internal clocks a solution is proposed based on message transmissions between two nodes.
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... These can be programmed to interact with the physical environment where they are deployed, by means of sensors and actuators that perceive physical variables from the environment, such as temperature, humidity, light, and so on. Without cabling or power supply and the reduced dimensions of the sensor nodes, the sensor networks have found applications in a number of domains, including military, medical, industry, environmental tracking, home automation, surveillance systems, just to name a few (Tirkawi and Fischer, 2009). In industrial scenarios WSNs may be used to ensure rare event detection or periodic data collection. ...
... measurements or alarms) and sending out messages and receiving messages from users. A software agent can also work in computer networks by receiving and sending data, messages, and signals to possible remote destinations (Paolucci and Sacile, 2005; Tirkawi and Fischer, 2009).Figure 1 shows a schematic representation of an agent model.Fig. 1. Agent model and information environment. ...
... At the destination device, an agent's execution is restarted exactly at the point where it was suspended before. In WSNs the sensor nodes have limited resources such as reduced physical size, small memory, limited computation, small energy budget, and narrow bandwidth (Tirkawi and Fischer, 2009). A large group of this small and low-cost sensor nodes can be deployed to a domain of interest and form a distributed networking system, in which collaboration among several sensor nodes is crucial to overcome the limited sensing and processing capabilities of each other, to improve the reliability of the decision making process (Biswas, et al., 2006). ...
Multi-agent based architecture for robust supervision over wireless sensor networks
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Sep 2010
The Wireless Sensor Networks have become an important issue in the research community. They can be used to detect and classify ephemeral events, such as alarm and fault detection notifications due to important changes in machine, process, plant security, operator actions, etc. Therefore, different process components with different behaviors have to communicate with each other for the sake of the global system teleonomy. Distributed Artificial Intelligence techniques, under the form of agents, can be used to improve performance of the overall system, in terms of autonomy, adaptability and robustness. The paper focuses on developing a wireless sensor networks based multi-agent architecture. A particular topology is proposed and general characteristics and requirements for mobile agents described, namely, tasks and services, as well as communication and coordination mechanisms.
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... Each node consists of a small electronic device with a wireless communication interface, a small programmable microcontroller, a power source, and can also include multi-type sensors, such as temperature, humidity, light and others, and analog-to-digital (ADC)/digital-to-analog (DAC) converters to acquire/send external signals. Their tiny dimensions, no need of wiring or external power supplies, rapid deployment, flexible installation and fully mobile operation (Taylor and Slipp (2010)), lead to a wide range of applications in several domains, ranging from industry to medicine, military tracking, home automation, surveillance systems, just to name a few (Tirkawi and Fischer (2009)). In industrial scenarios, WSAN nodes can be distributed into networks of a variable number of self-organized devices that can be used, for instance, to detect and classify events, such as alarms and fault notifications (Taylor and Slipp (2010)). ...
... denial of service, jamming, etc.), in such a way that collected data can be manipulated by hackers (Perrig et al. (2004)). Furthermore, their constraints on resources, such as, limited processing, small data storage, narrow bandwidth and autonomy (Tirkawi and Fischer (2009)), can lead to inaccurate data. In case of low node's battery power, the probability of collecting corrupted data is quite high. ...
... This requirement can be accomplished by incorporating dedicated algorithms and heuristics in an architecture implemented using a Multi-Agent framework (Biswas et al. (2006)). As intelligent and autonomous software programs, agents can be organized in a particular multi-agent framework, where they are allowed to cooperate in order to solve particular problems, inexorably constrained to the system's teleonomy, and taking advantage of their specific skills and individual knowledge (Tirkawi and Fischer (2009) ). Their incorporation in the outlier detection and accommodation problem is very attractive, since it is possible to implement a cooperative and decentralized multi-agent framework for such purpose, and making use of agent's features, such as autonomy, reactivity, pro-activity, cooperation and intelligence. ...
A Multi-Agent Approach for Outlier Accommodation in Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Jul 2012
Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks has become an important area of research, in particular, due to their intrinsic characteristics, such as, flexibility, low operational and maintenance costs and scalability. When dealing with systems' supervision in industrial environments, Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks can be used to detect and classify transitory events. In this context, it is essential that collected data should be reliable, ensuring the integrity of received information. A particular case of sensed data degradation stems from readings outliers, which should not be sent to the base station through the network. They must be locally detected and accommodated before transmission. However, traditional outlier accommodation techniques cannot be directly applied to sensor nodes due to computational and memory limitations. For this purpose, an outlier detection and accommodation architecture relying on a multi-agent framework, is proposed in this paper. Results collected from a laboratory testbed show the relevance of such approach. Copyright Controlo 2012.
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... Optionally, each node can also include a variety of network services, namely localization, Manuscript coverage, synchronization, data compression and aggregation, or security mechanisms [1]. The small dimension of these devices, absence of wired connections and external power supply, rapid deployment, flexible installation, and fully mobile operation, have enabled a wide range of applications in several realms, e.g., in industry, medicine, military surveillance, and tracking, or in home automation applications, just to name a few (see [2]). ...
... In the following, two different cases are considered, namely, when the ensemble is considered to be ergodic, and the nonstationary case, represented by a corrupted deterministic transient response described by (2). ...
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Article
  • Jul 2014
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become an important area of research because of their inherent characteristics, such as flexibility, low operational and maintenance costs, and scalability. When dealing with system monitoring in industrial environments, WSNs can be used for detecting and classifying transitory events or be integrated into networked control systems. As such, it is essential that the collected data is reliable, ensuring the quality of received information. A particular case of loss of reliability stems from outliers in raw data collected from the environment through built-in transducers or external transmitters attached to analog-to-digital converter ports. To avoid sending inaccurate data to the base station, it is required to implement a real-time data analysis to be launched at sensor nodes, which takes into account the nodes' natural computing and storage limitations. This brief proposes an outlier detection and accommodation methodology relying on univariate statistics in the form of Shewhart control charts, and formalized through a distributed hierarchical computational entities topology. The proposed scheme is evaluated on a real monitoring scenario implemented in a major oil refinery plant. Results from in situ experiments demonstrate the feasibility and relevance of the proposed approach.
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... 2), where local agents are responsible for specific tasks. In this framework each agent can be regarded as a computing entity comprising a certain degree of autonomy and having the ability to feel or actuate/react in order to achieve predefined goals [14]. In the present case, the architecture comprises [15]: i) an Agent Manager responsible for general management routines related to the subordinate agents, including regenerating agents from the local agents repository whenever a given lower level agent crashes; ii) Monitoring Agents with specific tasks, such as, analysing the data being collected from sensors, monitoring latencies and sending alarms to the Agent Manager; iii) Automatic Control Agent (ACA) aiming at stabilizing the system under control around the last reference signal received from the BS in case of communication breakdown in the forward channel. ...
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Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Nov 2011
Remote control based on an adaptive predictive control scheme over wireless sensor and actuator networks is considered. To cope with possible faults on the forward channel linking the base station and actuator nodes a fault tolerant mechanism relying on a hierarchical multi-agent framework is implemented locally on each actuator node. Experimental results using a testbed show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in accommodating transmission faults on the forward channel.
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A machine learning technique in a multi-agent framework for online outliers detection in Wireless Sensor Networks
Conference Paper
  • Nov 2015
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Distributed Multi-Agent Architecture for Dependable Supervision over WSAN
Conference Paper
  • Dec 2014
In supervision applications over wireless sensor and actuator networks the communication channels' reliability, along with the network quality of service and readings are critical issues. As such, in the design and implementation stages of such schemes preventive measures should be taken into account for the sake of control systems dependability. This paper proposes a multi-agent based framework implemented in some of the nodes of the network, for dealing with intermittent communication link breakdowns on the forward channel and accommodating outliers on the raw data taken from the environment. Experiments on a real oil refinery process demonstrate the feasibility of such approaches in the context of critical industrial supervision tasks.
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A distributed multi-agent approach for resilient supervision over a IPv6 WSAN infrastructure
Article
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Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks has become an important area of research. They can provide flexibility, low operational and maintenance costs and they are inherently scalable. In the realm of Internet of Things the majority of devices is able to communicate with one another, and in some cases they can be deployed with an IP address. This feature is undoubtedly very beneficial in wireless sensor and actuator networks applications, such as monitoring and control systems. However, this kind of communication infrastructure is rather challenging as it can compromise the overall system performance due to several factors, namely outliers, intermittent communication breakdown or security issues. In order to improve the overall resilience of the system, this work proposes a distributed hierarchical multi-agent architecture implemented over a IPv6 communication infrastructure. The Contiki Operating System and RPL routing protocol were used together to provide a IPv6 based communication between nodes and an external network. Experimental results collected from a laboratory IPv6 based WSAN test-bed, show the relevance and benefits of the proposed methodology to cope with communication loss between nodes and the server.
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TCTM: An evaluation framework for architecture design on wireless sensor networks
Article
  • Nov 2013
This paper presents an evaluation framework for architecture designs on wireless sensor networks WSNs. We introduce a simple evaluation model: triangular constraint tradeoffs model TCTM to grasp the essence of the architecture design consideration under transient wireless media characteristic and stringent limitation on energy and computing resource of WSNs. Based on this evaluation framework, we investigate the existing architectures proposed in literature from three main competing constraint aspects, namely generality, cost, and performance. Two important concepts: performance efficiency and deployment efficiency are identified and distinguished in overall architecture efficiency. With this powerful abstract and simple model, we describe the motivations of major body of WSNs architectures proposed in current literature. We also analyse the fundamental advantage and limitations of each class of architectures from TCTM perspective. We foresee the influence of evolving technology to futuristic architecture design. We believe our efforts will serve as a reference to orient researchers and system designers in this area.
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Conference Paper
Full-text available
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Conference Paper
Full-text available
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Middleware Challenges and Approaches for Wireless Sensor Networks
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Full-text available
  • Apr 2006
  • IEEE Distr Syst Online
The use of a novel approach, middleware layer, to fully meet the design and implementation challenges of wireless sensor network technologies is discussed. It is suggested that a complete middleware solution should contain a runtime environment that supports and coordinates multiple applications to achieve adaptive and efficient system resources use to prolong the life of the sensor network. The design and development of a successful middleware layer must address many challenges such as managing limited power and resources, scalability, heterogeneity, real-world integration, and quality of service. Middleware using autonomic computing could provide more robustness, reliability, and self-management.
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Conference Paper
  • Jun 2008
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Conference Paper
  • May 2005
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Directed Diffusion: A Scalable and Robust Communication Paradigm for Sensor Networks
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Mate: A Tiny Virtual Machine for Sensor Networks
Article
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Composed of tens of thousands of tiny devices with very limited resources ("motes"), sensor networks are subject to novel systems problems and constraints. The large number of motes in a sensor network means that there will often be some failing nodes; networks must be easy to repopulate. Often there is no feasible method to recharge motes, so energy is a precious resource. Once deployed, a network must be reprogrammable although physically unreachable, and this reprogramming can be a significant energy cost.
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