Programming sensor networks with nomadic NFC transponders

We present how NFC transponders can be used for energy efficient programming of closed-loop sensor networks, to update or augment the existing functionality. Use cases include road tunnel inspection, water pipeline monitoring and maintaining safety information on behalf of mine workers. We utilize opportunistic movement of the human operator, the flow of fluid in a pipeline or material in mines, to move the NFC transponder in the system effortlessly and without external network connectivity. Transponders contain mobile agents in their memory, which are injected into the system when transponder comes to the proximity of a node with NFC reader component. Then mobile agents autonomously operate their tasks, i.e. collect and process sensor data in the devices, detect events from data, control physical components and report their results. Mobile agents can adapt to the operational conditions of the system and physical environment, e.g. to save energy or operate in isolated network segments in fault situations. Real-world evaluation shows that this method is energy efficient in comparison with communications atop similar wireless sensor network.