Enabling mobile sensing through a DTN framework

Abstract

Participatory Sensing is the concept of distributed data collection by self-selected participants. By exploiting latest technology's smart devices, a large number of valuable information can be collected through embedded sensors and also be uploaded using provided services. Environmental measurements such as temperature or pollution, while also real-time data considering products information (i.e. prices, availability, offers), can be provided through such a framework. In this paper we present the NITOS mobile framework for data collection, that exploits vehicles moving around in a city. The proposed framework consists of low-sized wireless devices mounted on volunteers vehicles, as well as of static deployed Road Side Units (RSUs) providing the backbone connection for data acquisition. The extracted measurements concern air temperature and humidity plus the available WiFi networks operating in each area. Copyright 2013 ACM.