EFFICIENT STREAM SHARING FOR MULTI-USER SENSOR DATA COLLECTION

• US 20090224941A1
• Filed: 03/10/2008
• Published: 09/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Tavakoli-Shiraji, Arsalan, Zhao, Feng, Kansal, Aman, Nath, Suman
• Granted Patent: US 8,797,178 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/870.60
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 21/02 Measuring two or more variables by means not covered by a single other subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/20 using a distributed architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/30 using a wired architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/43 using wireless personal area networks [WPAN], e.g. 802.15, 802.15.1, 802.15.4, Bluetooth or ZigBee
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides systems and/or techniques that facilitate and/or effectuate efficient stream sharing for multi-user sensor data collection. The system includes mechanisms that locate within a query a specification that includes spatial regions over which data is required, based on the spatial regions the mechanism determines which sensors are situated within the region or ascertains which of the sensors in the region is actively streaming data and/or has persisted data in order to fulfill the query, constructs or utilizes a directed acyclic graph to obviate redundancy in a functional requirement included in the specification and imposed by the query, and formulates a result in fulfillment of the query that is delivered to an application.

Claims

1. A system implemented on a machine that facilitates and effectuates efficient stream sharing for multi-user sensor data collection, comprising:

a component that acquires a query via an interface, the component locates within the query a specification that includes a region over which data is requested, based at least in part on the region over which data is requested the component determines one or more sensors situated within the region, the component ascertains which of the one or more sensors is currently streaming data or has persisted data and which of the one or more sensors need to be initialized to fulfill the query, the component at least one of constructs or utilizes a directed acyclic graph to obviate redundancy in a functional requirement imposed by the query and formulate a result directed to an application, the component obviates redundancy in the functional requirement by assigning a signature to leaf or non-leaf nodes associated with the directed acyclic graph, utilizing the signature to identify common leaf or non-leaf nodes or common operations between the query and a second query, inserting an intermediate node in the directed acyclic graph, directing an edge from the common leaf or non-leaf nodes or common operations to the intermediate node, and carrying out the assigning, the utilizing, the inserting, or the directing one or more times to capture re-usable computations.

2. The system of claim 1, the region demarcates an area circumscribed by at least one of a geographic boundary, a political boundary, a strip covering a road route, or an area defined by a polygon.

3. The system of claim 1, the query includes a temporal characteristic required of the data acquired from the one or more sensors.

4. The system of claim 1, the component determines an accuracy level associated with the query, based at least in part on the accuracy level, the component at least one of prunes or augments a list of one or more sensors to correspond with the accuracy level.

5. The system of claim 1, the component ascertains an accuracy level associated with the query based at least in part on cost-based guidelines of sensor data budgets.

6. The system of claim 1, the component constructs a rationalized list of sensors utilized to satisfy the query, the rationalized list of sensors include the one or more sensors within the region specified in the query, or a sensor pruned from or added to the rationalized list based at least in part on at least one of a sensor characteristic, a cost-based guideline, or a sensor data budget.

7. The system of claim 1, the component directs a branch from the directed acyclic graph to the one or more sensors for pre-processing, the one or more sensors return partially processed data that satisfy the functional requirement imposed by the query.

8. The system of claim 1, the component forwards data flowing from the one or more sensors directly to the application based at least in part on a determination that the functional requirement imposed by the query or a temporal characteristic included in the query is unique to the application or is unique with respect to another query.

9. The system of claim 1, the component directs data from the one or more sensors to a data cache based at least in part on a determination that the data from the one or more sensors has a past, present, or future utility to fulfill the functional requirement imposed by the query.

10. The system of claim 1, the component directs data from the one or more sensors to the application based at least in part of a bandwidth usage cost or a latency cost.

11. A machine implemented method that shares at least one of data access, computation, or functional workload among multiple applications, comprising:

locating a specification that includes an area over which data is requested;

based at least in part on the area over which data is requested determining a sensor location situated within the area;

determining which sensor is currently streaming data or has persisted data;

initiating a sensor needed to fulfill a query; and

based at least in part on the determining or the initiating, constructing or employing a directed acyclic graph to obviate redundancy in a functional requirement imposed by the query and formulate a result directed to an application.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising ascertaining accuracy levels associated with the query and based on the ascertaining removing or adding sensors located in the area over which data is requested to comport with the accuracy levels.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining accuracy levels associated with the query based at least in part on at least one of cost-based guidelines or sensor data budgets.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising isolating a branch associated with the directed acyclic graph and sending the branch to the application for post-processing.

15. The method of claim 11, the constructing or employing of the directed acyclic graph further comprising:

assigning a signature value to each leaf node or non-leaf node associated with the directed acyclic graph;

identifying common leaf nodes, common non-leaf nodes, or common operations between the query and a second query; and

modifying the directed acyclic graph to include an intermediate node with arcs emanating from the common leaf nodes, the common non-leaf nodes, or the common operations re-directed to the intermediate node, and repeating the modifying one or more times for capturing re-usable computations.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising diverting data flowing from the sensor directly to the application, the diverting based on a determination that the functional requirement imposed by the query is unique to the query.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising persisting data emanating from the sensor based on a past, present, or future need ascertained from the functional requirement imposed by the query.

18. A system that effectuates efficient stream sharing for multi-user sensor data collection, comprising:

means for identifying a specification in a query, the specification includes a prescribed geographic area over which data is requested;

means for determining a sensor location situated within the prescribed geographic area;

means for identifying a sensor actively streaming data or persisting data;

means for constructing or employing a directed acyclic graph to locate redundancy in a functional requirement imposed by the query; and

means for producing a result based on the directed acyclic graph utilized by multiple applications.

19. The system of claim 18, further including means for allocating a signature to a node in the directed acyclic graph, the signature identifies a set of queries requesting data from the sensor or utilizing a similar functional requirement as imposed by the query and employing streaming data or persisting data from the sensor.

20. The system of claim 18, the specification includes at least one of a time horizon or a function applied to actively streaming data.