Large-Scale Sensor Network Analysis

Sensors are increasingly being used to monitor the world around us. They measure movements of structures such as bridges, windmills, and plane wings, human’s vital signs, atmospheric conditions, and fluctuations in power and water networks. In many cases, this results in large networks with different types of sensors, generating impressive amounts of data. As the volume and complexity of data increases, their effective use becomes more challenging, and novel solutions are needed both on a technical as well as a scientific level. Founded on several real-world applications, this chapter discusses the challenges involved in large-scale sensor data analysis and describes practical solutions to address them. Due to the sheer size of the data and the large amount of computation involved, these are clearly “Big Data” applications.