Open-source Peer-to-Peer Environment to Enable Sensor Web Architecture: Application to Geomagnetic Observations and Modeling

A flexible, dynamic, and reliable secure peer-to-peer (P2P) communication environment is under development at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Popular open-source P2P software technology provides a self- organizing, self-healing ad hoc "virtual network overlay" protocol-suite. The current effort builds a proof-of-concept geomagnetic Sensor Web upon this foundation. Our long-term objective is to enable an evolution of many types of distributed Earth system sensors and related processing/storage components into elements of an operational Sensor Web via integration into this P2P Environment. In general, the Environment distributes data communication tasks among the sensors (viewed as peers, each assigned a peer-role) and controls the flow of data. This work encompasses dynamic discovery, monitoring, control, and configuration as well as autonomous operations, real-time modeling and data processing, and secure ubiquitous communications. We currently restrict our communications to be within the secure GSFC network environment, and have integrated "simulated" (via historical data) geomagnetic sensors. Each remote sensor has operating modes to manage (from remote interfaces) and is designed to have features nearly indistinguishable from a live magnetometer. We have implemented basic identity management features (organized around GSFC identity-management practices); providing mechanisms which restrict data-serving privileges to authorized users, and which allow improved trust and accountability among users of the Environment. Data-serving peers digitally "sign" their services, and their data-browsing counterparts will only accept the products of services whose signature (and hence identity) can be verified. The current usage scenario involves modeling-peers, which operate within the same Environment as the sensors and also have operating modes to remotely manage, portraying a near-real- time global representation of geomagnetic activity from dynamic sensor-reported values. Remote "browsing" peers access these modeling-run results within the Environment, but also have the option to access the sensors directly. We expect that this preparatory work will benefit the LWS/Geospace program, as real-time geomagnetic observations are relevant to Sun-Earth Connection studies.