Supporting spatial aggregation in sensor network databases

Abstract

Sensor networks are unattended deeply distributed systems whose schema can be conceptualized using the relational model. Aggregation queries on the data sampled at each sensor node are the main means to extract the abstract characteristics of the surrounding environment. However, the non-uniform distribution of the sensor nodes in the environment leads to inaccurate results generated by the aggregation queries. In this paper, we introduce "spatial aggregations" that take into consideration the distribution of the values generated by the sensor nodes. We propose the use of spatial interpolation methods derived from the fields of spatial statistics and computational geometry to answer spatial aggregations. In particular, we study Spatial Moving Average (SMA), Voronoi Diagram and Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN). Investigating these methods for answering spatial average queries, we show that the average value on the data samples weighted by the area of the Voronoi cell of the corresponding sensor node, provides the best precision. Consequently, we introduce an incremental algorithm to compute and maintain the Voronoi cell at each sensor node. To demonstrate the performance of in-network implementation of our algorithm, we have developed prototypes of two different approaches to distributed spatial aggregate processing.

Escalation: Complex Event Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks

“…The work by [31] extended the types of aggregates supported by introducing (approximate) quantiles such as the median, the consensus, the histogram and range queries. Support for Spatial Aggregation was also suggested by [32] where sensor node would be grouped and aggregates would be computed using Voronoi diagrams. Another approach [33] models the sensor network as a distributed deductive declarative database system.…”

Utilizing Voronoi Cells of Location Data Streams for Accurate Computation of Aggregate Functions in Sensor Networks

“…A preliminary version of this work is presented in Sharifzadeh and Shahabi [12], where Voronoi aggregation operator use the exact Voronoi cell at each node. This paper subsumes [12] and proposes AVC-SW that supports dynamism in the sensor network.…”

Utilizing Voronoi Cells of Location Data Streams for Accurate Computation of Aggregate Functions in Sensor Networks

“…This paper subsumes [12] and proposes AVC-SW that supports dynamism in the sensor network. AVC-SW is a novel algorithm for computing the Voronoi cell of a fixed 2-d point when the locations of the neighboring points arrive as a geometric data stream.…”