OGC PUCK standard enables `plug and work` sensor networks

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) membership has voted to adopt the candidate OGC PUCK Protocol Standard.

Most sensor networks require careful manual installation and configuration by technicians to assure that software components are properly associated with the physical instruments that they represent. Instrument driver software, configuration files, and metadata describing the instrument and its capabilities must be manually installed and associated with a physical instrument port. Sometimes these manual procedures must be performed under physically challenging conditions, increasing the chances of human error. PUCK addresses these challenges by defining a standard instrument protocol to retrieve metadata and other information from the device itself. This information can include OGC SWE SensorML and IEEE 1451 Transducer Electronic Data Sheet (TEDS) documents, as well as actual instrument driver code. Computers on the network can use the PUCK protocol to retrieve this information from installed instruments and utilize it appropriately, e.g. to automatically identify, configure and operate the instruments. Thus PUCK enables automatic self-configuring "plug-and-work" sensor networks.

The PUCK standard is relatively simple, and several manufacturers have already implemented the protocol in their instruments' firmware. PUCK augments but doesn't replace existing instrument command sets, so it can be implemented without abandoning existing firmware and software applications.

Internet: www.opengeospatial.org/standards/cr