Lake Erken

Lake�Erken IM Install Report
11 July 2007

An overarching goal of the GLEON is to share data among sites. This requires that sensor data reside in repositories that conform to standards for data access, metadata descriptions, and be exposed to the outside world via the Internet. These seemingly simple requirements actually impose a level of information management that most GLEON members do not have. In fact, most are trying to “get into the sensor network game”, but cannot because of the difficulty of developing IM from scratch. Many sites have acquired or will be acquiring sensor technology, know how to sample the environment with it, and can download data to some sort of repository on a computer. The repository is often a simple system that is not easily shared and generally is unavailable to access via the Internet.

At GLEON 4, we agreed to run an experiment to develop a sensor information management system that conforms to emerging standards, is reasonably easy to install and use, and allows scientists to gain access to the data via the Internet. Furthermore, the system would facilitate data sharing among GLEON sites, given site-specific policy constraints. A team of experts from within GLEON would design and install the system, provide training to the site's personnel, and document the results of the experiment.

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We have chosen Lake Erken (Erken Station, Uppsala University, Sweden ) as the first experimental site for a GLEON information management (IM) system installation.

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As in any experiment, we expected to learn a lot. We have tested the actual technology and system design and have learned much of its strengths and weaknesses. We have evaluated the process required to install and configure the system and have documented the process for future installations. We have discovered meta-characteristics of the system that were unforeseen and that may relate to reliability, ease of use, adaptability, and unforeseen dependencies. Finally, we have evaluated the experiment in qualitative ways, including: ease of installation and configuration; resources required; ease of operation; reliability; conformity to standards; adaptability to changing sensor network configurations; satisfaction from the end-user's perspective.

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