The Signpost Platform for City-Scale Sensing

TL;DR

Signpost is a modular, energy-harvesting platform designed to facilitate city-scale sensing deployments by simplifying installation, enabling multi-sensor support, and promoting experimentation in urban environments.

Contribution

We introduce Signpost, a novel energy-harvesting platform that simplifies city-scale sensing deployment and supports multiple sensor modules with fair resource sharing.

Findings

Successful deployment with various sensor modules

Viability of energy-harvesting, multi-tenant sensing system

Supports sensing applications effectively

Abstract

City-scale sensing holds the promise of enabling a deeper understanding of our urban environments. However, a city-scale deployment requires physical installation, power management, and communications---all challenging tasks standing between a good idea and a realized one. This indicates the need for a platform that enables easy deployment and experimentation for applications operating at city scale. To address these challenges, we present Signpost, a modular, energy-harvesting platform for city-scale sensing. Signpost simplifies deployment by eliminating the need for connection to wired infrastructure and instead harvesting energy from an integrated solar panel. The platform furnishes the key resources necessary to support multiple, pluggable sensor modules while providing fair, safe, and reliable sharing in the face of dynamic energy constraints. We deploy Signpost with several sensor modules, showing the viability of an energy-harvesting, multi-tenant, sensing system, and evaluate its ability to support sensing applications. We believe Signpost reduces the difficulty inherent in city-scale deployments, enables new experimentation, and provides improved insights into urban health.