System Architecture Design

pSHIELDSystem Architecture DesignPU6.1.2.2.3 HYDRA middlewareThe European Hydra project developed a "Middleware for Heterogeneous Physical Devices" with the aimto help manufacturers and systems integrators to build devices that can be networked easily and flexiblyto create cost-effective high performance solutions. For the heterogeneous devices, sensors andactuators envisioned in the pSHIELD project, the large number of manufacturers and Universities areinvolved and the differences in their speed of innovation become an obstacle for the overall systemdesign. Therefore, there is an urgent need for technologies and tools that make it easier to reap thebenefits of networked systems. The complexity to build new technologies and tools grows exponentiallywith the number of devices, manufacturers and protocols involved. The Hydra middleware is a coretechnology that has a transparent communication layer, equally supporting centralized and distributedarchitectures. The Hydra middleware takes security and trust into account and allows building modelguidedweb services. It runs on wired or wireless networks of distributed devices with limited resources.The embedded and mobile service-oriented architecture will provide fully compatible data access acrossheterogeneous platforms, allowing to create true ambient intelligence for networked ESDs. Addingextended security, privacy, trust and new dependability modules may satisfy requirements for having amiddleware that will be SPD composable with the rest of the pSHIELD system architecture and network.The Hydra middleware consists of large number of software components – or managers – that handlevarious tasks needed to support cost-effective development of intelligent applications for networkedembedded devices.The biggest advantage of the Hydra middleware relies on the fact that allows developers to incorporateheterogeneous ESDs into their applications. This middleware can be incorporated in new and existingnetworks of distributed ESDs, which operate with limited resources: computing power, energy andmemory. Additionally, Hydra-middleware provides easy-to-use web service interfaces for controlling anytype of physical device irrespective of its network interface technology. Additionally, this middleware isbased on a semantic Model Driven Architecture for easy programming and incorporates servicediscovery, P2P communications and diagnostic. In Hydra framework any physical devices, sensors,actuators or subsystems can be considered as a unique web service.What we will need from HYDRA middleware for the pSHIELD SPD nodes? A lightweight version of thismiddleware, to be the Legacy Middleware Layer on top of which the pSHIELD middleware Adapter canhost a set of Innovative SPD Functionalities: proper software modules must be added. This solution is inline with the recent IP stacks that are lightweight enough to run on tiny, battery operated ESDs. This isalso in line with emerging application space of smart objects that require scalable and interoperablecommunication mechanisms that support future innovations as the application space grows. This strategyis also aligned with the future application scenarios “the Internet of Human and Things” (ITH). Smartobjects are small computers with a sensor and actuator and a communication device, embedded inobjects. To support the large number of emerging applications for smart objects, the underlyingnetworking technology must be inherently scalable, interoperable, and have solid standardization base tosupport future innovation.6.1.2.3 Specific SPD Considerations for Wireless Sensor NetworksThe Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) applications are used in many critical tasks, like aerospace,automation, monitoring environment, etc. Nowadays, these applications include new properties, such assecurity, dependability, privacy and trust. For WSNs applications to make security and dependabilitysatisfaction is more and more important. In general WSNs are layered in 5 layers, but there are also othercases like Hydra network where we have three layers. In the pSHIELD project we follow the concept offour functional layers and based on that we are constructing a new type of network that we simple callSPD network. Heterogeneity of this SPD network is an extremely important feature of the pSHIELDnetwork, since it allows existence of different type of Embedded System Devices on the Node Layer.PUD2.3.2Issue 5 Page 81 of 122