Sensor Network Grids: Agent Environments Combined with QoS in Wireless Sensor Networks

We present a distributed systems architecture that uses Grid computing to combine basic nodes of wireless sensor networks with complex sensor nodes of wired networks. Three kinds of complex sensor nodes are identified: objects, agents and containers. The decision making capabilities of the complex nodes are then combined with a quality of service (QoS) framework for gathering data from the wireless sensor nodes. The resulting combination provides a powerful conceptual framework for developing ambient intelligence and ubiquitous computing applications on the grid.