A cloud based virtualisation protocol for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Virtual sensor networks (VSNs) allow linking physical wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and specialised services that permit sensor data gathering, storing and processing. In this manner VSNs provide concurrent, scalable and flexible access to a common pool of sensor nodes. Cloud computing technologies allow to deal with the WSNs heterogeneity (hardware footprint, communication protocols standards, etc.). This work proposes a real-time, centralised, cloud-based, service-oriented virtualisation protocol under a publish-subscribe model, capable of masking WSNs errors and their limitations. Protocol implementation tests on a single virtual machine show its capability to subscribe to more than 100 WSN and continuously receive, store, filter and predict data from over 1000 sensor nodes while also service reliably over 24,000 nodes from 500 requested VSN, using a stream of data from an original pool of 100 sensor nodes with an average VSN-publishing delay under 20 ms regardless of the WSN delays and errors.