SensorHUB - An IoT Driver Framework for Supporting Sensor Networks and Data Analysis

The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming the surrounding everyday physical objects into an ecosystem of information that enriches our everyday lives. The IoT that represents the convergence of advances in miniaturization, wireless connectivity and increased data storage is driven by various sensors. Sensors detect and measure changes in position, temperature, light, and many others, furthermore, they are necessary to turn billions of objects into data-generating “things” that can report on their status, and often interact with their environment. 

The SensorHUB framework is a data monetization enabler, which supports application domain-specific, - i.e. transportation, health, production lines, smart cities, - data collection and service development to utilize sensor networks, smart client devices and cloud-based backend environments. SensorHUB has several implementations, for example the VehicleICT platform, which supports connected car domain related application and service development. 

A pillar of the Future Internet, the Internet of Things will comprise many billions of Internet-connected objects or "things" that can sense, communicate, compute, and potentially actuate, as well as have intelligence, multimodal interfaces, physical/virtual identities, and attributes. The IoT is an enabler and often driver to many application domains including production lines, supply chain management, transportation and logistics, aerospace, and automotive.

In a world that is saturated with "things" that form diverse and heterogeneous networks with overlapping capabilities in massively distributed IoT-based systems, it is important to efficiently utilize resources, including power efficiency and sensor data based capabilities.

To realize the IoT vision of bringing technology to people anytime, anywhere, with any device, service, or application, not only must users be aware of their devices’ capabilities but the "things" must also be aware of users' activities, preferences, and context. The SensorHUB concept provides a framework and tools to support application domain specific service development.

The architecture of the SensorHUB concept is depicted in the Figure. The whole system contains the following areas:

1. Sensors, data collection, local processing, client side visualization and data transmission (bottom left)
2. Cloud based backend with big data analysis and management (bottom right)
3. Domain specific software components  (middle)
4. Applications, services, business intelligence reports, dashboards (top)
    

Sensors cover different domains: health, smart city, vehicle, production line, weather and others sensors. Local processing and data transmission is a local platform, which performs core services, i.e. data collection, data aggregation, visualization, secure communication, and data transmission. This component also provides information as a local service interface for different applications. 

IoT based data collection, data transmission, big data management, trusted cloud and privacy issues are the main challenges of the addressed area. Frameworks helping the companies, research groups and students contribute to this ecosystem are prepare the future design and development platforms. We believe that SensorHUB is also such a framework.

Contact

Web: http://www.aut.bme.hu/SensorHUB

László Lengyel
Péter Ekler