A network management approach for implementing the smart sensor plug and play

Sensor networks are used in the industry extensively. Most of these networks are static and do not provide standardized and systematic network management capabilities. There is no intelligence associated with the sensors and they behave as mere sensing elements. There is a need to monitor the sensor networks with the classical elements of network management : fault, configuration, performance, accounting, and security. However, most of the sensor networking approaches lack a standardized method of handling these classical elements. This paper is on the demonstration of plug and play of smart sensors using a standardized internet network management protocol (SNMP - Simple Network Management Protocol) method with IEEE 1451-based TEDS capabilities. It also demonstrates plug and play capability at different levels to provide network and sensor management in a dynamic fashion. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of three-level plug and play in a standardized way using SNMP and IEEE 1451.