IPFIX for wireless sensors in home networks

The developments in the military, health and home area call for new approaches for data acquisition in real-time. Such application areas frequently include challenging requirements for collection, processing and analysis of environmental data. Wireless Sensor Networks can collect the needed environmental data efficiently. Collected sensor node data needs to be transmitted in an efficient way due to limitations of sensor node resources in battery power and available bandwidth. In this paper, we present a method for efficient transmission of sensor measurement data using the IETF standard IPFIX. We show that its template based design is suitable for efficient transmission of senor data with low bandwidth consumption. Additionally, aggregation can be performed on top of IPFIX, which further reduces the amount of data. By using a standardized protocol like IPFIX, interoperability between devices from different vendors can be ensured.