Distributing and processing data from the edge. A case study with ultrasound sensor modules

Currently, the proliferation of interconnected smart devices is related to smart urban management. These devices can process sensor data in order to obtain significant information. This information can be provided to the upper layers but also can be used by the devices to take some smart actions. This article shows the change from the classic hierarchical devices and data paradigm to a paradigm based on distributed intelligent devices. The distributed model has been used to create a system architecture with Arduino-based Control Nodes interconnected by means of an I2C-bus. Each module can read the distance to each vehicle, and process this data to provide the vehicle speed and length. A case has experimented where modules share raw data and another case where modules share processed data. Results show that it is possible to reduce processing load up to 22% in the case of sharing processed information instead of raw data.