Policy-based Management for Body-Sensor Networks

Abstract

Abstract-Body sensor networks e.g., for health monitoring, consist of several low-power on-body wireless sensors, higher-level devices such as PDAs and possibly actuators such as drug delivery pumps. It is important that such networks can adapt autonomously to changing conditions such as failures, changes in context e.g., user activity, or changes in the clinical condition of patients. Potential reconfiguration actions include changing the monitoring thresholds on sensors, the analysis algorithms or the configuration of the network itself. This paper presents a policy-based approach for autonomous management of body-sensor networks using the concept of a SelfManaged Cell (SMC). Ponder2 is an implementation of this approach that permits the specification and enforcement of policies that facilitate management and adaptation of the response to changing conditions. A Tiny Policy Interpreter has also been developed in order to provide programmable decision-making capability for BSN nodes.

Towards Supporting Interactions between Self-Managed Cells

“…However, porting the interaction framework to the Gumstix, where initial versions of the core services are running already, remains to be done. Integration with the lightweight implementation of the SMC core services [9] for constrained BSN sensors also remains to be addressed.…”

“…For example, even BSN nodes can be connected to multiple analogue sensors and support internal event-based interactions. We have also implemented a basic policy service for BSNs to cater for adaptation to changing circumstances [9].…”

Policy conflicts in home automation

“…'when the front door opens, if the house is occupied then play music else report an intruder'). Ponder (and its derivative Ponder 2, www.ponder2.net) is a well-known policy language that is often used for system management, but has now been extended for applications such as Body Sensor Networks [2]. Like ACCENT, Ponder supports policies in ECA form.…”

REED: Flexible rule based programming of wireless sensor networks at runtime

“…While reprogrammability at run-time for rule-based systems has been achieved through configuration data [18] , we are not aware of any systems that address rule changes at run-time. [22] and [23], written by S. L. Keoh, N. Dulay, E. Lupu, et. al, proposed a policy based middleware architecture for managing body sensor networks, in which the policies take on the same form (<event, condition, action>) used in REED.…”

“…al, proposed a policy based middleware architecture for managing body sensor networks, in which the policies take on the same form (<event, condition, action>) used in REED. Indeed [23] concludes that the policy based middleware provides flexibility to reprogram the sensor with new adaptation strategies without requiring installation of new code. However, they do not demonstrate such reprogramming scenarios, nor do they provide dynamic policy management such as rule consistency, and rule merging and filtering during the reprogramming.…”