A Presence-Based Architecture for the Integration of the Sensing Capabilities of Wireless Sensor Networks in the IP Multimedia Subsystem

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are made up of small devices that can sense context information (e.g. space, physiology, and environment). The IP Multimedia System (IMS) aims at the convergence of Internet and cellular networks. It enables the delivery of multimedia services to end-users. Integrating the sensing capabilities of WSN in the IP multimedia subsystem will open the door to a wide range of novel multimedia services. This paper proposes a presence based architecture for the integration, focusing on how the information is conveyed from the WSN to the presence infrastructure (i.e the inbound interface). Presence is an integral part of IMS. It enables the distribution of end-user presence information (e.g. location, availability), a sub-set of context information, to interested parties, generally applications. We introduce the architecture and elaborate some of the required extensions to the 3GPP presence service. The proof of concept prototype is also described.