Enhancing Internet and Distributed Computing Systems with Wireless Sensor Networks

The emergence of low-cost, wireless sensor platforms, along with cloud computing and big data, is leading wireless sensor networks (WSNs) as an enabling technology for Internet-based computing. However, while WSNs have dramatic potential impacts in several domains (such as building automation, environmental monitoring, mobile-health, Internet of Things, and cyber-physical systems), their deployment in the real world is still challenging due to various factors. This special issue is aimed at providing high-quality research to deal with the problems related to next generation WSNs enhancing Internet and distributed computing systems and acts as a stimulus to novel approaches and ideas.

This special issue hosts two revised and extended papers, which are strongly related to WSN research area and are coming from the Internet and Distributed Computing Systems (IDCS) 2014 conference, and five research articles submitted through an open call.

The seven accepted papers, which include theoretical studies, algorithms, practical applications, open issues, and challenges, cover the following specific aspects of the integration of WSNs and Internet computing: dynamic security for sensor networks, energy management in dynamic home area networks, large-scale processing for Internet of Things, software engineering for distributed wearable systems, sensor communication based on game theory, process migration in wireless sensor networks, and designing wireless body sensor networks.

The paper titled “DYSSS: A Dynamic and Context-Aware Security System for Shared Sensor Networks” by C. M. de Farias et al. proposes a dynamic security system for shared sensor networks. It offers nodes neighborhood monitoring and collaboration to identify attacks and enhance security. The proposed system is dynamic since it is able to manage availability, integrity, and confidentiality of multiple applications according to the current execution context. It is also resilient, since it is capable of supporting the continuous network operation even in the presence of malicious or faulty nodes.

The paper titled “An IoT-Based Home Energy Management System over Dynamic Home Area Networks” by J. Kim et al. presents a solution to develop home energy management system (HEMS) in the context of smart grids. Specifically, the paper proposes an HEMS based on Internet of Things (IoT) consisting of a lightweight photovoltaic system over dynamic home area networks. The IoT-based approach enables the construction of HEMS that are more scalable, reusable, and interoperable. Authors also suggest techniques for reducing the cost of the HEMS with various perspectives on system, network, and middleware architecture. Finally, they conducted experiments on the developed prototype to evaluate the performance.

The paper titled “A Model-Driven Approach for Wearable Systems Developments” by A. Ruiz-Zafra et al. proposes a model-driven approach for developing high-level software interfaces that allow developers to interact with wearable devices easily. These components hide the heterogeneity of the devices interfaces and provide developers with a simple and homogeneous way to interoperate with these digital peripherals.

The paper titled “Large-Scale Real-Time Semantic Processing Framework for Internet of Things” by X. Chen et al. presents a real-time semantic processing architecture for massive streaming IoT data. Using the architecture, an elastic streaming engine is also developed based on popular large-scale distributed computing platform called SPARK. To illustrate the efficiency of the proposed engine, a typical use case scenario on home environment monitoring is presented. The experimental results show that the proposed system can scale for large number of sensor streams with different types of IoT applications.

The paper titled “Sensor Communication Rate Control Scheme Based on Inference Game Approach” by S. Kim proposes an inference game model and applies it to the sensor communication paradigm in diverse IoT environments. The algorithm based on the model has been tested in a simulation environment and the results show that it improves the QoS provisioning with excellent IoT system performance.

The paper titled “Native Process Migration in Wireless Sensor Networks” by S. I. Hussain et al. proposes a resource aware architecture for process migration in homogenous wireless sensor networks (WSNs) without using virtual environment. The proposed architecture enables native live processes to migrate between wireless nodes with complete process instead of code only which also saves resources. Hence, the architecture is suitable for networks with fewer expensive sensor nodes as it allows for better utilization of network resources. The architecture has been successfully tested, validated, and implemented on both COOJA simulator and a test bed of TelosB motes.

The paper titled “Developing a Powerful and Resilient Smart Body Sensor Network through Hypercube Interconnection” by A. S. Almogren proposes a novel body sensor network architecture that meets the ever increasing demands to minimize transmission to the base station and to decrease the overall amount of transmitted data in order to reduce power consumption. The proposed architecture is based on the hypercube backbone structure.

We hope that the above overviewed seven papers included in this special issue will represent an important body of knowledge for those researchers and practitioners focusing on the area of WSNs and Internet computing.