ENTERPRISE SENSOR PLATFORM (ESP)

An Innovative and Interoperable Solution for Enabling Sensor Data

The Enterprise Sensor Platform (ESP) is a middleware product enabling organizations to better leverage their mobile sensor devices, improving operational awareness and decision making. Implementing industry standards for data access and modeling ESP provides an interoperable interface through which an organization’s IT systems can access heterogeneous sensor data. ESP simplifies the integration of all sensor types, including: video surveillance, smart phones, PDA devices, EMS vehicles, unmanned vehicles and many more, into a common gateway for access and control.

OVERVIEW

An organization’s operational awareness and organizational agility are greatly improved through the acquisition of “real-time” data from sensors exposed through terrestrial networks. ESP provides a solution for connecting the sensor world with the Enterprise world, creating an environment where “real-time” data fosters “in-time” intelligence.

Recent technological innovations have led to the creation of sensor and mobile devices that are more powerful, more intelligent, and less expensive. Additionally, the ubiquitous availability of broadband networks has simplified data transport in ways not possible a decade ago.

Organizations are leveraging these advances by engaging in activities to facilitate data sharing both internally and externally with business and mission partners. The need to share data is driven by many factors, chief among them the need to increase operational awareness and organizational agility. Access to “real-time” data plays a critical role in improving data quality.

The challenge then becomes how to harvest and disseminate data from its source in such a manner that the Enterprise can analyze, exploit, and share in a timely and secure manner. It is this challenge that ESP looks to solve through exposing sensor data to the IT Enterprise environment.

Our Enterprise Sensor Platform incorporates capabilities that facilitate discovery, tasking, event notification, and data storage for sensors and sensor networks. Additional capabilities include access control and federation to promote secure sharing of sensor data. ESP serves as a gateway through which standard interfaces make available native sensor data.

Sensors registered within the ESP Sensor Instance Registry (SIR) are available for discovery through standards based web-service interfaces to client applications. The SIR represents a “real-time” snapshot of available sensors in the field, as sensors come on and off line the SIR is updated providing client applications with the most uptodate information available.

Through the ESP administration console organizations are able to configure multiple data stores based on sensor and data types. Sensor data comes in many forms, organizations may require storage in different devices based on archival need or retreival speed, the ESP’s dynamic data store accomodates this need.

Data streaming in from heterogeneous sensors connected to the ESP arrive in a variety of raw formats which the ESP normalizes through the use of sensor adapters. Through the use of predefined filters Enterprise applications can register to receive event notifications using the ESP’s Web Notification Services (WNS), a standard web service interface for asynchronous delivery of messages or alerts.

Video feeds received from sensors are captured and rebroadcasted by the ESP increasing the scalability of the sensor infrastructure while reducing bandwidth impact on sensor devices. Video feeds can be stored and/or fed live through the rebroadcasting server.

ESP provides capability to connect to other OGC sensor services creating a federated sensor environment. Federated Gateway providing run-time configurable ability to share sensor data and control privileges with external applications and clients.

ESP is a middleware solution built and deployed onto an Enterprise Application Server platform through which it leverages Enterprise capabilities such as scalability and fault tolerance,data access, and security services.

ESP supports the OGC standard interfaces for exposing sensors and sensor data, fostering interoperable integration. Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Standards based interfaces for simplified integration of both sensors and client application. This includes standard services such as Observation (SOS), Event (SES), Planning (SPS), and Registry (SIR).

Sensors registered within the ESP Sensor Instance Registry (SIR) are available for discovery through standards based web-service interfaces to client applications. The SIR represents a “real-time” snapshot of available sensors in the field, as sensors come on and off line the SIR is updated providing client applications with the most uptodate information available.

The ESP provides an administration console through which sensors, sensor services, sensor adapters, data sources, and users and groups can be added, modified, and deleted in a run-time operational setting without incuring system downtime. It’s this run-time configuration capability that allows for operational agility and flexibility.

Integrated Secure is an Information Technology (IT) solutions provider specializing in full life-cycle delivery and operational support of enterprise systems. Our staff of professionals works closely with commercial and government customers to delivery agile systems adhering to best-practices with regard to net-centricity, systems engineering, user enablement, and knowledge management. Our focus is on the alignment of IT initiatives with the customer mission. Integrated Secure was recently recognized by the INC 500 as the 17th fastest growing IT Services Company in the United States.