A Proposed API for the Information Plane of the WSN Integrated Technical Reference Model (I-TRM)

The Integrated Technical Reference Model (I-TRM) for an autonomous Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) has been developed to be used as a guideline to develop a unified and standardized architecture for a diverse array of multi-platform WSNs. Based on the I-TRM proposed by Michel and Fortier, there are three planes to this reference model: The Information Plane, the Control Plane and the Behavior Plane. This reference model lays out a detailed layered model with functional description of each layer described in general terms. The Information Plane puts forward the information processing side of the system. The main focus is on data collection, information aggregation, knowledge generation and presentation. It shows how data is transformed into knowledge. This paper presents the follow up research performed on this ITRM, by providing a platform independent API to aid designers of WSNs to develop a codified implementation of WSNs. The API has been implemented using nesC in a TinyOS environment, running on the Berkeley Motes. Keywords-component; wireless sensor networks; reference model; API