OptiCam: Optimal Camera Selection for Provisioning Camera - Network -as-a -Service

This work proposes an optimal camera selection scheme, OptiCam, for provisioning Camera-Network-as-a-Service (CNaaS) to multiple end-users while ensuring fair participation of the camera-network owners. Typically, in CNaaS, multiple cameras work together to form a virtual camera network and provide the services to the end-users. These cameras are procured and deployed by their respective owners, who receive rents for lending their cameras. In such a situation, the camera selection mechanism must be fair, so that, each of the owners receives an equal opportunity to participate in the CNaaS platform and earn the profit. On the other hand, multiple camera nodes may be available to serve an end-user application. Therefore, it is pertinent to select the suitable camera nodes, among the available ones, and serve the application while ensuring a longer lifetime of the network. The proposed scheme, OptiCam, is capable of selecting suitable camera nodes, optimally, while ensuring the fair participation of the owners, and increasing the network lifetime. To formulate the proposed scheme, we use a market-based auction model. The results of extensive simulations show that the average lifetime is improved in the case of OptiCam as compared to normal camera network (NCN) by 34.4%. Additionally, we observed that the total number of cameras activated per unit time increases by 8.63% in the case of NCN, while it decreases by 70.77%, in case of OptiCam.