Embedded web server for wireless sensor networks

This paper presents an implementation of a platform-independent embedded Web server and its integration into a network of wireless sensor nodes. The embedded Web server is designed and built as an expansion module for one of the nodes in the wireless sensor network (WSN). It allows authorized Internet users to establish two-way communication with the sensor network. The server uses limited available hardware resources to implement an interface to the WSN node and to serve dynamic HTML pages to the remote user. This allows the user to monitor the operation of the WSN remotely, to periodically download the sensed data, and to change the operation mode of the network. In addition to providing monitoring and data collection services, the embedded Web server can generate email alerts about critical issues in the WSN, provide secure access to modules that change the operation of the WSN, shut down sensor nodes, and log data from the network into an on-board flash memory.