Cassowary: Middleware Platform for Context-Aware Smart Buildings with Software-Defined Sensor Networks

Today I presented my work** at FCUL - the Faculty of Science, Universidade de Lisboa. Though I have presented my work in conferences, this was the first time I presented my work in another university in Portugal. I have always enjoyed presenting in different universities when I was in Sri Lanka. However, this marked my first in Portugal, ever since I left Sri Lanka in 2012. I always enjoyed visiting other universities (the universities that I am not studying). I have previously been to ISCTE-IUL, and today it was FCUL. Visiting new universities is like invading a new country. ;) I loved my audience - it was interactive and I learned a lot from the audience myself!

** Kathiravelu, P., Shari , L., & Veiga, L. (2015). Cassowary: Middleware Platform for Context-Aware Smart Buildings with Software-De ned Sensor Networks . In 2nd Workshop on Middleware for Context-Aware Applications in the IoT (M4IOT 2015), co-located with ACM/USENIX/IFIP Middleware 2015. Dec.2015. Pages 1 - 6.
doi>10.1145/2836127.2836132

Cassowary: Middleware Platform for Context-Aware Smart Buildings with Software-Defined Sensor Networks from Kathiravelu Pradeeban

Abstract: 
Smart devices sense the environment through their sensors and leverage the contextual information derived from the sensor readings to satisfy system requirements such as energy and carbon efficiency and user preferences. Smart buildings compose of smart devices, and local sensors of the devices and device controllers in a coordinated network. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) offers a centralized view of the entire networking data plane elements to a logically centralized controller. While smart buildings and ubiquitous computing are heavily researched, later advancements in networking are not exploited in achieving tenant-aware smart buildings.

This paper describes the research for the design, prototype implementation, and preliminary assessments of Cassowary, a middleware platform for Context-Aware Smart Buildings with Software-Defined Sensor Networks. By extending SDN paradigm and leveraging the message oriented middleware protocols to seamlessly connect the smart devices of the buildings to the centralized SDN controller, Cassowary enables context-aware Software-Defined Smart Buildings.