IrisNet: an architecture for internet-scale sensing services

We demonstrate the design and an early prototype of IrisNet (Internet-scale Resource-Intensive Sensor Network services), a common, scalable networked infrastructure for deploying wide area sensing services. IrisNet is a potentially global network of smart sensing nodes, with webcams or other monitoring devices, and organizing nodes that provide the means to query recent and historical sensor-based data. IrisNet exploits the fact that high-volume sensor feeds are typically attached to devices with significant computing power and storage, and running a standard operating system. It uses aggressive filtering, smart query routing, and semantic caching to dramatically reduce network bandwidth utilization and improve query response times, as we demonstrate. Our demo will present two services built on Iris-Net, from two very different application domains. The first one, a parking space finder, utilizes webcams that monitor parking spaces to answer queries such as the availability of parking spaces near a user's destination. The second one, a distributed infrastructure monitor, uses measurement tools installed in individual nodes of a large distributed infrastructure to answer queries such as average network bandwidth usage of a set of nodes.