MEDAL: A coMpact event description and analysis language for wireless sensor networks
Krasimira Kapitanova, Sang Hyuk Son · 2009
Event detection plays an important role in wireless sensor network (WSN) applications such as battlefield surveillance and habitat monitoring. However, effective approaches for specifying events in a sensor network remain a challenge. In this paper we present MEDAL, a formal event description language. MEDAL is a modified Petri net which provides a more compact formal language than its predecessor SNEDL. As a system analysis tool, MEDAL can capture the structural, spatial, and temporal properties of a complex event detection system, which can be used to assist system designers in identifying inconsistencies and potential problems. MEDAL can also perform case-specific analyses that can make the debugging phase easier. We present a case study as an example illustrating the features and effectiveness of MEDAL. We also describe an approach for simultaneous detection of multiple events in a single WSN.