Providing Homogeneous Access for Sensor Data Management ∗

We are facing the proliferation of several kinds of sensing devices, from satellites to tiny sensors. This has opened up new possibilities for us to understand, manage and monitor a given environment, from the small – e.g., a room – to the large – e.g., the planet. This, however, has added a new dimension to the classic problem of heterogeneous data management – how to handle increasing volumes of sensing data from a wide range of sensors. This report is concerned with the problem of sensor data publication. Our solution involves the design and implementation of a framework for sensor data management, which applies technologies based on Semantic Web standards, components and scientific workflows. Individual sensors or networks are encapsulated into a specific kind of component – DCC – which supports homogeneous access to data and software. DCCs are themselves handled by scientific workflows that provide facilities for controlling data production, integration and publication. As a result, applications that require sensor data will instead interact with workflows, being liberated from concerns such as sensor particularities, or provide separate handlers for real time streams. The report also presents initial implementation results. ∗Part of this text was submitted to the VLDB 2007 Conference. This work was supported by Fapesp under the grant number 2004/14052-3 and partially financed by a CNPq grant, the WebMaps II project and an HP Digital Publishing grant.