Ubiquitous Sensor Networks and Their Application 2013

On behalf of the guest editors and external reviewers, it is an honor for us to introduce you to this special issue, which includes articles that cover topics of particular interest to researchers on the field of ubiquitous sensor networks and their application.

This issue contains 53 articles which come from various countries, among which we mention Spain, Brazil, China, Taiwan, Belgium, México, Republic of Korea, Macau, and Australia.

In the paper “Development of gas safety management system for smart-home services,” authors proposed a system for improving gas safety management through the use of wireless communication modules and intelligent gas safety appliances. Authors' system configuration consisted of an automatic extinguishing system, detectors, a wall-pad, and a microcomputer controlled micom gas meter to monitor gas flow and pressure as well as the occurrence of earthquakes.

The paper “A street parking system using wireless sensor networks” proposed a street parking system (SPS) based on wireless sensor networks. The system can monitor the state of every parking space by deploying a magnetic sensor node on the space. For accurately detecting a parking car, a vehicle detection algorithm was proposed. And an adaptive sampling mechanism was used to reduce the energy consumption.

In the paper “Hybrid ACO Routing Protocol for mobile ad hoc networks,” authors presented Hybrid ACO Routing (HACOR), a bioinspired protocol based on ACO. In the simulation results authors observed how this protocol performs significantly better compared to a state-of-the-art routing protocol, according to the analyzed metrics.

In the paper “An efficient model for smart home by virtualization of wireless sensor network,” authors proposed a VSN based business model for implementing smart home for the rapidly growing elderly populations of the world in a cost-effective way. Authors also proposed the virtualization architecture of fully functional sensor node known as sensor gateway router and mathematical model for embedding of VSN node and link to the physical sensor node and links.

In “Improved security patch on secure communication among cell phones and sensor networks,” authors proposed security patches and improvements, which overcome the weak features in the scheme of Arjan Durresi and Vamsi Paruchuri. Finally authors came out with results which show that their improved security patch establishes trust between the cell phone and gateway in the form of mutual authentication and provided the session key establishment after the authentication phase.

In the paper “Efficient sensor localization for indoor environments using classification of link quality patterns,” authors proposed an efficient indoor localization method for ZigBee sensor nodes by classifying link quality indicator (LQI) patterns between a target node and multiple reference nodes rather than using calculation with RSS values. And authors also presented the results of indoor localization experiments in our ubiquitous home network test bed using the proposed localization method.

In the paper “Secure and lightweight key distribution with ZigBee pro for ubiquitous sensor networks,” authors proposed a secure and lightweight key distribution mechanism using ZigBee Pro for ubiquitous sensor networks. Authors used enhanced ECDH for secure key distribution in high security mode. Authors' simulation results showed the energy consumption of their approach decreased and the average run time was decreased by 39%.

In “Deployment support for sensor networks in indoor climate monitoring,” authors presented a novel method of placing and minimizing sensor nodes for sensor network in indoor climate monitoring and smart energy systems. Authors have developed ZigBee-based wireless sensor nodes and collected temperature, humidity, and illumination data set from 13 wireless sensor nodes installed in a laboratory environment for a week.

The paper “Handing optimization energy consumption in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks” presents an integer linear programming model devoted to optimize the energy consumption efficiency in heterogeneous wireless sensor networks. The model in this paper was based upon a schedule of sensor allocation plans in multiple time intervals subject to coverage and connectivity constraints.

In the paper “Personalization in mobile activity recognition system using K-medoids clustering algorithm,” an effective personalization algorithm that integrates SVM classification and K-medoids clustering method was proposed to select confident samples for updating a given AR model. The algorithm's performance was verified through recognizing predefined and new activities.

In the paper “Redundant-path scheme for efficient interworking between a wireless sensor network and the Internet,” authors proposed a redundant-path scheme based on a multichannel WSN for efficient interworking among heterogeneous networks. Authors evaluated the performance of our proposed scheme through real-world simulation, and the results showed improvement in data throughput, packet delay, and beacon loss ratio.

In “Privacy care architecture in wireless sensor networks,” authors focused on WSN privacy issues with respect to mobile environments. This research suggested architecture to securely manage private data collected by WSN. Authors also designed the integrated system where authors could link the protection methods closely with the private data protection law and regulation.

In the paper “On the problem of energy balanced relay sensor placement in wireless sensor networks,” authors investigated the problem of joint placement for both relays and sensors to eliminate energy hole. Authors first theoretically concluded that balanced energy depletion is achievable with rational designed deployment density for relay nodes. Authors then proposed a novel relay deploying strategy as well as a data routing scheme to eliminate uneven energy depletion.

In the paper “Towards an extensible and secure cloud architecture model for sensor information system,” authors proposed an extensible and secure cloud architecture model for sensor information system. Firstly, authors described the composition and mechanism of the architecture model using cloud paradigm. Secondly, authors designed the security solution for accessing sensor data and information services inside the architecture.

In the paper “Design and analysis of high-performance smart card with HF/UHF dual-band RFID tag and memory functions,” authors introduced a novel design of high-performance smart card with HF/UHF dual-band RFID tag to overcome the frequency interference problem. Authors designed and tested a UHF RFID tag using a simulation software system.

The paper “Dynamic reconfigurable hub as a stationary node in a hybrid sensor network” proposed a specially designed stationary node called a SMART (system management architecture for reconfigurable technology) Node, which is capable of dynamic reconfiguration of the various sensing functions or communication protocols. The SMART Node could provide suitable service and change the communication protocol according to various surroundings and user requirements.

In the paper “Novel neighbor selection method to improve data sparsity problem in collaborative filtering,” authors analyzed various problems with the traditional neighbor selection method and proposed a novel method to improve upon them. The proposed method minimized the similarity evaluation errors with the existing neighbor selection method by considering the number of common items between two objects.

In “Development and functional evaluation of an upper extremity rehabilitation system based on inertial sensors and virtual reality,” an extremity rehabilitation program was proposed based on inertial measurement units (IMU) and virtual reality. A single IMU consisted of a three-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, and geomagnetic sensors. One IMU was attached to the upper arm (master) and another to the forearm (slave). The IMUs were connected using a distributed sensor network implemented with inter-integrated circuit communication.

In the paper “The cluster-heads selection method considering energy balancing for wireless sensor networks,” authors established and proposed an energy-balanced CH selection mechanism and the distribution of sensor node's energy consumption in WSNs for equal and stable energy management.

In “MFT-MAC: a duty-cycle MAC protocol using multiframe transmission for wireless sensor networks,” authors proposed a new contention-based duty-cycle MAC protocol using a synchronized approach for use in wireless sensor networks. In the proposed MFT-MAC protocol, authors used a control frame that considers the number of DATA frames to be transmitted to the next node in order to improve the energy efficiency and reduce the end-to-end delay.

The paper “A method to determine basic probability assignment in context awareness of a moving object” presented a method to determine BPA (basic probability assignment) through sensor data only reported by sensors without depending on preset information data modeled prior to actual events. This was used to determine BPA for multisensor data fusion so that a pedestrian, who walked or moved, could recognize a moving object.

The paper “A study of the integrated automated emotion music with the motion gesture synthesis via ZigBee wireless communication” mainly discussed the possibility to integrate both automatic composition and motion devices with an emotional identification system (EIS) using the emotion classification and parameters through wireless communication ZigBee.

Authors proposed a dynamic topology reformation algorithm in the paper called “A dynamic topology reformation algorithm for power saving in ZigBee sensor networks.” The algorithm consisted of a cluster reformation scheme for enhancing connectivity and a self-swapping method for averaging the loading of router nodes and end devices. As the experimental result showed, compared with the ZigBee standard, the authors' method gained 6.02% to 15.13% improvement in network join ratio.

To make the smart work environment, the system has to be data-driven manner so that data can keep its consistency. Preexisting data acquire method in inspection job is almost based on documents or handover from other engineers. However sometimes it produces inconsistent data which is different with updated information and it leads to potential risk factors. To prevent and reduce inconstant information between users and updated information, the paper “Cloud-based RF-inspection for ship maintenance” suggested radio frequency identification device (RFID) and cloud technology.

In the paper “EMQP: an energy-efficient privacy-preserving MAX/MIN query processing in tiered wireless sensor networks,” authors proposed EMQP, a novel and energy-efficient protocol for handling privacy-preserving MAX/MIN queries in two-tiered sensor networks. To implement privacy-preserving MAX/MIN query processing without exposing the real value of collected data to master nodes, the technique of 0-1 encoding verification and the encryption are applied.

In mobile sensor networks, malicious nodes frequently move to different locations and thus it is likely difficult to collect enough evidence for them. Moreover, when reputation-based schemes are employed, it is not easy to revoke the malicious nodes due to the risk of false positives. To mitigate these limitations of reputation-based schemes, authors proposed mobile malicious node detection schemes based on software attestation technique, which virtually fulfills zero false positives, in the paper “Robust detection of malicious nodes in mobile sensor networks using software attestation.”

The paper “Design of a new virtual interaction based PLC training using virtual sensors and actuators: system and its application” proposed a new virtual interaction based PLC (programmable logic controller) training system using virtual sensors and actuators. The proposed system is composed of four components including virtual sensors (for interacting between user and input device), virtual actuators (for manipulating and controlling device or equipment), virtual PLC (for programming and generating command), and virtual networks (for interfacing the interactions and transferring the data between all the components).

The focus of the paper “Identifying optimal spatial groups for maximum coverage in ubiquitous sensor network by using clustering algorithms” was to design efficient methods to identify such optimal spatial groups that have certain sizes and positions using clustering algorithms or the equivalent, for obtaining maximum total coverage in total. Some examples included but were not limited to setting up mobile phone base stations among an even distribution of mobile phone users where each may have different demand in usage.

In the paper “The lifetime extension of wireless sensor networks using adaptive energy allocation by distance,” authors proposed an improved grouping protocol, which considers the distance between the sensor node and the sink node in order to allocate total energy of a group. The proposed method was compared with previous works by simulations to show the advantages of extending the network lifetime.

In the paper “A+MAC: a streamlined variable duty-cycle MAC protocol for wireless sensor networks,” with detailed packet-level simulations, authors verified and demonstrated that A+MAC can achieve as much as two orders of magnitude energy savings with improved network performance compared to a previous solution.

By analyzing the characteristics of ship-borne WSN, the paper “Location algorithm for nodes of ship-borne wireless sensor networks” designed and verified location algorithm for nodes of ship-borne WSN, which consists of LAAC (location algorithm among cabins) and LAIC (location algorithm in the cabin), and, to test the location algorithm, authors experimented on “A” ship.

In the paper “An efficient processing of join queries for sensor networks using column-oriented databases,” authors proposed a technique for join queries in a sensor network that minimizes communication cost, where the sensor data (readings) are stored in column-oriented databases. A column-oriented database stores data on disk (or in memory) column by column unlike traditional database that store data in rows.

Authors investigated aggregator node selection in WSNs in the paper “Skyline-based aggregator node selection in wireless sensor networks.” Authors formulated the selection process as a top-k query problem, which is solved by adapting a modified soft-filter-skyline (SFS) algorithm. The main idea in authors' approach was to perform a skyline query on the sensor nodes in WSNs in order to extract among those sensor nodes that are potential candidates for the leading role and those that cannot possibly become an aggregator node.

In order to increase the utilization of the cold chain system, in the paper “Research on real-time localization and environmental monitoring using sensors and ZigBee for cold chain system,” authors used both the commercial technologies of sensors and Zigbee for environmental measurements and cellular phone or smart phone with GPS for real-time localization and date transmissions.

The paper “Ontology-based methodology for managing heterogeneous wireless sensor networks” defined the network-related terminology using Protégé for the tools and definitions necessary for ontology-based methodology, thereby defining OWL (Web ontology language) and the related rules, and suggested a methodology for incorporated management.

The paper “Verification of data races in concurrent interrupt handlers” presented an efficient and scalable on-the-fly technique that precisely detects apparent data races in interrupt-driven programs without false positives. The technique combined a tailored lightweight labeling scheme to maintain the logical concurrency between the main program and every instance of its interrupt handlers with a precise detection protocol that analyzes conflicting shared memory accesses by storing at most two accesses for each shared variable.

Recently, many problems have occurred with respect to hygiene and beauty of view especially due to growing of various molds in the residential environment. In the heat of summer, the damages from molds become serious due to the effect of temperature and humidity according to seasonal characteristics. Therefore, in the paper “Design and implementation of the prevention system of molds growth using wireless sensor networks,” authors designed and implemented the prevention system of molds growth which can predict and prevent molds production in indoor environment for sensor networks.

In the paper “Development of the prediction system of condensation based on wireless communications,” a special system was developed to collect and monitor environmental information causing condensation, in real-time using a wireless sensor network in order to build a system to prevent condensation.

In “Design and implementation of a state-driven operating system for highly reconfigurable sensor networks,” authors presented an efficient and effective design of the state machine based operating system for wireless sensor nodes. Authors described that the new platform can operate in an extremely resource constrained situation while providing the desired concurrency, reactivity, and reconfigurability.

In the paper “A design of a congestion control scheme based on multi-channel on wireless sensor networks,” authors proposed a congestion control scheme on wireless multichannel sensor networks. The proposed congestion control scheme consisted of a congestion detection strategy and two cases of congestion control strategies, assigned a priority to a received packet according to their transmission distance, and it differentiates the number of useable channels while congestion occurs.

The paper “Well-suited similarity functions for data aggregation in cluster-based underwater wireless sensor networks” presented an efficient data aggregation approach for cluster-based underwater wireless sensor networks in order to prolong network lifetime. Authors showed the effectiveness of similarity functions, especially Euclidean distance and cosine distance, in reducing the packet size and minimizing the data redundancy of cluster-based underwater wireless sensor networks.

In the paper “Design of a room monitoring system for wireless sensor networks,” authors designed a wireless sensor module that had a ZigBee communication module and a sensor module for monitoring a room or an office environment using WSN. The sensor module had various enlargements for various types of sensors, for example, a humidity sensor, temperature sensor, O₂, CO₂ sensors, and so forth.

In the paper “A ubiquitous motion tracking system using sensors in a personal health device,” a ubiquitous motion tracking system that tracks sporting equipment using the sensors installed in an activity monitor was proposed and constructed. The activity monitor with the tracking sensors could be attached to places on the body or on sports equipment to calculate the speed and acceleration of these objects.

In “A hybrid distance estimation for wireless body sensor networks,” authors proposed hibernation and distance estimation schemes for WUSB (wireless USB) over WBAN (wireless body area networks) hierarchical protocol for body sensor networks (BSN). The proposed middleware platform was composed of hibernation and optimal short distance estimation solution.

An ultrasonic sensor based personalized multichannel audio rendering method was proposed in “Ultrasonic sensor-based personalized multichannel audio rendering for multiview broadcasting services” to increase audio realism in multiview broadcasting services. To this end, a real-time person-tracking method was first developed by using two ultrasonic transducers and an ultrasonic receiver in order to estimate the viewpoint of a user. Second, a parameter-based audio panning method using MPEG Surround parameters were proposed to increase the auditory realism.

The paper “A DPSMAC (differential probability selection MAC) protocol considering energy consumption in wireless sensor networks” presented a DPSMAC (Differential Probability Selection MAC) protocol which is efficient for medium access in the real-time sensor networks. The presented DPSMAC protocol was similar to the conventional CSMA/CA protocols except that it did not use a time-varying contention window in which a node randomly selects a transmission slot.

The paper “A very fast decision tree algorithm for real-time data mining of imperfect data streams in a distributed wireless sensor network” proposed a novel real-time stream mining model that couples Very Fast Decision Tree (VFDT) algorithm and a programmable cache called Auxiliary Reconciliation Control (ARC) for handling missing data. Experimental results from both synthetic and real-life data showed that the new model is superior to standard algorithms.

In “A conflict avoidance scheme for WiMedia wireless home networks,” authors proposed Relay DRP protocol, which makes a relay path to avoid DRP conflicts or harsh channel conditions through cooperative relay transmission scheme and is compliant with the current WiMedia D-MAC protocol.

A fuzzy collaborative sensor network was developed in the paper “A fuzzy collaborative sensor network for semiconductor manufacturing cycle time forecasting” to predict the cycle time of a job in a semiconductor manufacturing factory, which is an important task for the factory. In the fuzzy collaborative sensor network, each sensor detected the status of a particular job as well as various environmental conditions present in the factory and used a fuzzy neural network to analyze the received information.

The paper “Restrictive disjoint-link-based bioinspired routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks” presented a new variant of AntOR, a multihop adaptive routing protocol based on AntHocNet which already has two versions: disjoint link routes (AntOR-DLR) and disjoint node (AntOR-DNR). The new protocol, called AntOR-RDLR, differs from AntOR-DLR through the pheromones updating process and the route discovery mechanism. The simulation results indicated that AntOR-RDLR improves their predecessors in all analyzed metrics.

To accommodate services in large-scale symbiotic networks, including wireless sensor networks, authors proposed a software platform which autonomously constructs and orchestrates such compositions in “Symbiotic service composition in distributed sensor networks.” Furthermore, upon changes in the infrastructure, the platform responded by adapting the compositions to reflect the changed context.

In the paper “An integration avenue of ground monitoring based on wireless sensor networks,” authors presented a global integration avenue of ground monitoring based on WSNs. The proposed avenue included design, integration, and operational strategies of IP-WSN based territorial monitoring system to ensure compatibility and interoperability.

In the paper “End-to-end message exchange in a deployable marine environment hierarchical wireless sensor network,” authors presented a pragmatic view of different approaches used to guarantee data delivery in a deployable marine habitat monitoring system in a two-tier dual frequency (2.4 GHz/900 MHz) hierarchical wireless sensor network (WSN). At the lower tier authors preconfigured end-point (EP) transceivers for automatic data acquisition and wireless transfer using their native application program interface (API) framework. At the upper tier, authors deployed a modified low level 8-bit “lighter” version of the well-known web application protocol called JavaScript object notation (JSON, or in our case LJSON) for back and forth CLH to BS validated message exchange.