Wireless Sensor Network Based Infrastructure for Experimentally Driven Research

The availability of suitable infrastructure represents one of the key factors for sustainable development of society and economy. The concept of smart cities exposed the importance of sensorial infrastructure combined with powerful analytical data processing to enable deep insight and better understanding of natural and social processes to provide various services to citizens. The aim of this paper is to present the LOG-a-TEC sensor network and its role in experimentally driven research and development. The LOG-a-TEC testbed is based on wireless sensor network technology and its initial phase was deployed on public infrastructure in Logatec, Slovenia, subsequently being complemented with additional locations for different application areas. In all cases the wireless sensor network implementation is based on the VESNA platform, a versatile platform for sensor network applications. To support the evaluation of different principles and solutions, the VESNA platform allows remote reprogramming as well as expansion with new sensors and other functional modules. As an example we present LOG-a-TEC experimental infrastructure based applications for radio spectrum occupancy sensing, environmental monitoring, smart grids and the sensors as a service concept making sensors and their measurements directly accessible for ad hoc use.