FEDL: Formalized Event Description Language for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Event detection plays an important role in sensor network applications such as battlefield surveillance and habitat monitoring. However, effective approaches to specify events in a sensor network remain a challenge. Existing techniques such as natural languages or SQL-like languages have a number of limitations. In this paper, we present a formalized event description language (FEDL) developed especially for sensor networks by extending and modifying Petri Nets. As a description language, FEDL is an extension of Petri-Nets with both diagram and symbolic representation support. A FEDL Petri Net integrates features from color, time and stochastic Petri Nets to tackle problems in specification and analysis. As a system analysis tool, FEDL can capture the structural, spatial and temporal properties of a complex event detection system, which can be used to assist system designers to identify inconsistencies and potential problems. In addition, FEDL can perform case-specific analysis that helps in the debugging phase. A case study is presented as an example to illustrate the features and effectiveness of FEDL. Keyword: Wireless sensor networks, Petri Nets, spatial and temporal properties, event specification and analysis Note: Abstract extracted from PDF text