A local data abstraction and communication paradigm for pervasive computing

As sensor networks are increasingly used to support pervasive computing, we envision an instrumented environment that can provide varying amounts of information to mobile applications immersed within the network. Such a scenario deviates from existing deployments of sensor networks which are often highly application-specific and funnel information to a central collection point. We instead target scenarios in which multiple mobile applications will leverage sensor network nodes opportunistically and unpredictably. Such situations require new communication abstractions that enable immersed devices to interact directly with available sensors, reducing both communication overhead and data latency. This paper introduces scenes, which applications create based on their communication requirements, abstract properties of the underlying network communication, and properties of the physical environment. This paper reports on the communication model, an initial implementation, and its performance in varying scenarios.