An overview of information extraction from mobile wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Information Extraction (IE) is a key research area within the field of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). It has been characterised in a variety of ways, ranging from the description of its purposes, to reasonably abstract models of its processes and components. There has been only a handful of papers addressing IE over mobile WSNs directly, these dealt with individual mobility related problems as the need arises. This paper is presented as a tutorial that takes the reader from the point of identifying data about a dynamic (mobile) real world problem, relating the data back to the world from which it was collected, and finally discovering what is in the data. It covers the entire process with special emphasis on how to exploit mobility in maximising information return from a mobile WSN. We present some challenges introduced by mobility on the IE process as well as its effects on the quality of the extracted information. Finally, we identify future research directions facing the development of efficient IE approaches for WSNs in the presence of mobility. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.