MidSHM: A Middleware for WSN-based SHM Application using Service-Oriented Architecture

Abstract

Wireless sensor network (WSN) has been used for structural health monitoring (SHM) application for a long time. However, SHM domain experts lack the knowledge of low-level network issues and cannot develop an application with high efficiency. Middleware hides low-level network and hardware related issues by providing programming abstractions for an application developer which makes it easier to develop an application. In this paper, we survey different middleware approaches and propose MidSHM, a middleware for WSN-based SHM applications using the service-oriented architecture (SOA). SOA uses loosely coupled services that can be reused flexibly to develop different applications. MidSHM is a three-layered middleware with each of the layers containing various services that address issues such as in-network processing, fault tolerance, dynamicity, quality of service etc. We describe operations of various services and use two application examples to illustrate the usability and flexibility of MidSHM. We also compare MidSHM with other SOA-based WSN middleware.