Unifying micro sensor networks with the Internet via overlay networking [wireless networks]

Today's architecture for interconnecting wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and the Internet is based on treating a WSN as a separate entity from the Internet. Our approach to unifying sensor networks with the Internet is instead to decouple the relationship between the API-enforced database view and the gateway, making the gateway more general by introducing application-level overlay networking into the gateway. In our approach, sensor network packets, rather than being stopped at the gateway, are instead encapsulated into IP packets, and then directed from the gateway to any number of interested applications and services residing remotely on the Internet.