Spatio-temporal Behavior in Cyber-Physical Systems from a Natural Phenomena Perspective

Currently in computer science, there is a new type of emerging system called Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). CPSs are found in several vital domains. The main characteristic of this type of system, unlike the rest, is that CPSs interact with the environment through sensors and actuators. The latter introduces a new type of spatio-temporal constraints and/or dependencies. Hence, it is necessary to try to understand, identify, and model the intrinsic spatio-temporal behaviors of these systems. In this paper, we present a study that identifies, characterizes, and classifies spatio-temporal phenomena that exist in nature. We claim that such spatio-temporal behaviors exist in CPSs and that we can take advantage of them to design new and better solutions that will be more efficient and effective. Finally, an emergency message system is presented as a case study to illustrate spatio-temporal behaviors in vehicular networks.