Open Sensor Platforms: The Sensor Web Enablement Framework and Beyond

Over the last years, more and more sensor systems emerged that can not only be accessed but also controlled and configured using the Internet. This trend allows mobile applications that rely on sensor data; however, the access and configuration of sensor systems is a tedious task. As many sensor manufacturers implement their own protocols, there are many communication protocols. Although unifying standards like the Sensor Web Enablement framework (SWE)—developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)— exists, they are still not widely used by off-the-shelf sensor systems. As a result, other middleware platforms like the Sensor Configuration and Aggregation Middleware for Multi Platform Interchange (SCAMPI) have been developed. In this paper, we analyze the Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) framework regarding requirements of sensor-based applications, show how it can be integrated in SCAMPI, and highlight the strengths and limitations of SWE based on the experiences we made during the integration process. The implementation and evaluation of the system shows the benefits and disadvantages of the SWE framework from the perspective of a developer who wants to integrate the SWE framework into a middleware as well as from the perspective of a developer who wants to build a system around the SWE framework. The results of this paper can be used to assess whether the SWE standard and its application will be useful for a given scenario.