Proceedings of the 4th international workshop on middleware tools, services and run-time support for sensor networks

Following the successful editions of MidSens 2006 (Melbourne), 2007 (Newport Beach), and 2008 (Leuven), wewelcome you again and hope you will enjoy reading the proceedings of the fourth edition of the international ACMworkshop on Middleware Tools, Services and Run-Time Support for Sensor Networks (MidSens 2009), which tookplace in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, US.We continue to work on the definition of appropriate middleware architectures and programming models forsensor networks; this year we specifically address middleware tools, services and run-time support for developing contemporary sensor applications. In line with these objectives, the MidSens 2009 proceedings provide an overview of current research to (1) investigate key challenges in the management and maintenance of large-scale sensor networks and (2) design sensor middleware solutions to address them; we present three pairs of papers focusing on three topics: adaptability, diagnosis and control, and enterprise integration.Firstly, two papers target adaptable sensor platforms by presenting services and execution environments thatenable the customization of sensor middleware to network conditions and application specific requirements. Assensor applications become more complex and sensor hardware becomes more powerful, sensor middleware can, butalso must take into account changing operational conditions to maximize the device’s lifetime.Secondly, two papers investigate failure detection and run-time debugging tools for resource-constrained sensornodes. Hand-crafted solutions to detect and resolve problems with a sensor clearly do not scale with the typicalsize, unpredictable dynamics, and deployment of sensor networks in often harsh environments. Both papers presentproof-of-concepts to confirm the feasibility of their approaches.Finally, we present two papers on enterprise integration, i.e. bridging wireless sensor networks and state-of-the-artbackend systems. If we are to develop and maintain sensor networks in a realistic business context, businessmodeling support, the specification of business policies, and the enforcement thereof become key problems in theapplication development process.We are truly convinced that the mix of accepted papers provides an up to date snapshot of state-of-the-artresearch in the field as well as a jumping-off point for discussion of outstanding challenges in middleware for sensor networks.We are indebted to all of the authors for their interest in contributing to MidSens 2009 as well as the programmingcommittee for their hard work in reviewing the submissions.

Publication year:2009

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