Quality of Sensor-Originated Information in Coalition Information Networks

Abstract

Coalition operations greatly benefit from the exchange of information collected from a plethora of wirelessly communicating sensors deployed in the theater of operation. However, to make judicious use of this information and then act effectively based on this information, knowledge of its quality, and a common means of expressing and communicating this quality are necessary. This chapter considers quality of information (QoI) for sensor networks starting with building a definition of QoI from first principles and by exploiting industry efforts to define quality in other domains, notably quality of service. The definition touches upon two complementary yet distinct aspects of quality: (a) the inherent quality attributes that characterize information; and (b) the assessment of these attributes within the context of applications utilizing the information, referred as the value of information (VoI). It then discusses information as a service and the various QoI viewpoints that associate sensor-originated information providers with sensor-enabled applications in dynamic coalition environments. Then, information processors and operators are introduced, which are functional modules in end-to-end systems that process information based on the QoI attributes. Finally, a data model for QoI metadata, describing the QoI attributes, is presented. The data model provides a common means to describe and communicate QoI attributes among information processors. It enables the indexing and searching of the most pertinent information, of desired quality, and information sources and the on-demand binding of applications to sources that is necessary to support operations in multiparty coalitions.