Flux: A Platform for Dynamically Reconfigurable Mobile Crowd-Sensing

Flux is a platform for dynamically reconfigurable crowd-sensing using mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, programmed under a notion of region-based sensing. Each region is defined by a set of physical constraints that determine the sensing scope, e.g., based on device position or other environmental variables, plus a set of periodic tasks that perform the actual sensing. The resulting behavior is inherently dynamic: as a device’s state changes, e.g., moves in space, it enters and/or leaves different regions, thereby changing the set of active tasks; moreover, regions can be added, deleted, and reprogrammed on-the-fly. Flux makes use of a domain-specific language for sensing tasks that is compiled into abstract bytecode, later executed by a low-footprint virtual machine within a device, guaranteeing runtime safety by construction. For region/task dissemination, Flux employs a broker that holds a changeable region configuration plus gateways that mirror the configuration throughout different network access points to which devices connect. Sensing data is streamed by devices to gateways and then back to the broker. Live or archived data streams are in turn fed by the broker to data-processing clients, which interface with the broker using a publish/subscribe API. We conducted two case-study experiments illustrating Flux: a single-region deployment to monitor WiFi signal quality, and a multi-region deployment to monitor noise, temperature, and places-of-interest based on device movement.