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Phenotropic and stigmergic webs: the new reach of networks

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Abstract

This article proposes a conceptual extension of sensor–actuator networks, taking in all “things” that can be sensed by sensors, or acted upon by actuators, in various physical modalities. These things become nodes of a web, graph, or virtual network overlaid on the existing sensor–actuator networks that make up the “Internet of Things”. The paper explains how the broader concepts of phenotropics and stigmergy may account for the special kind of connections that these networks entail. Phenotropics refer to a model of communication between nodes by way of pattern recognition. Stigmergy refers to a model of self-organization that uses communication between entities by modifications of a shared physical environment. Phenotropic–stimergic webs “loop back” sensor–actuator networks by way of the physical world. Graph-based complexity models provide a means of analyzing the hybrid systems made up by these networks and the additional nodes attached to them in this way. The evolution toward such paradigms in the realm of network-to-environment interfaces draws upon a similar, long-standing evolution in the realm of human-to-information interfaces. The paper explores the consequences of these new networking paradigms on the architecture, management, and organization of networks. It also shows how these ideas can expand and enrich present-day applications of pervasive networking, by taking full advantage of the physical nature of the new end points of digital networks, and how they bear upon human interfaces to networked services, possibly opening up new territories for universal access.

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Notes

  1. Zigbee is a short-range, low- bit-rate and low-power radio protocol used for connection of sensors or other low-end devices.

  2. M2M (Machine to Machine) is, in the telecom industry, the favored designation for the new domain of services where mobile terminals are used in conjunction with sensors for remote monitoring or remote control. Viewed originally as a mere extension of the subscription base for cellular services (using embedded SIM cards), M2M services are now understood as potentially using all kinds of special-purpose wireline or wireless access networks, extending their range to low-end devices for which direct connection to regular cellular networks would not, technically or economically, make sense.

  3. The distinction is not entirely clear-cut because many IT devices now include new physical interfaces (such as location sensors or NFC tags/readers), that, even if they are not used directly for human interaction, provide contextual information that may be used directly or indirectly for human interaction.

  4. The latter word has already been widely adopted in the scientific literature on collective intelligence, even though it first appeared in a french-language journal on social insects, whereas the Lanier phenotropics article has had very little following so far.

  5. http://www.epcglobalinc.org.

  6. http://www.uidcenter.org.

  7. Namely the application of lightweight RESTful protocols based on the original web for the internet of things, in lieu of the more cumbersome web services (WS-*) suite.

  8. The dual classical greek stem of this work means literally: "appearance", (like in "pheno-type") and "turn" or "direction" like in "iso-tropic".

  9. Barcode is a misnomer for these codes as, unlike their 1D counterparts, they are not limited to using bars as their basic symbols. Examples are Aztec codes, cybercodes, „data matrix, QRcodes, shotcodes, semacodes, etc.).

  10. Syntax should be taken here to mean the arrangement of individual signs in a language with at least two levels of articulation (where a meaningful sign is made up of a combination of elemental signs). This syntax defines a global sign with semantic mapping (e.g., a morpheme) as a 2D geometric assemblage between lower-level individual signs (e.g., graphemes), rather than merely prescribing a generation/recognition mechanism mapped to a sequential arrangement of alphabet signs, as Chomskyan syntaxes do.

  11. The Jini infrastructure [14] was such an attempt at hiding protocols under programmatic interfaces, where the mutual adaptation between both parties was made possible by code mobility.

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  1. Orange Labs R&D, Technologies, 28 Chemin du vieux Chêne, 38240, Meylan, France

    Gilles Privat

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  1. Gilles Privat
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Correspondence to Gilles Privat.

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Privat, G. Phenotropic and stigmergic webs: the new reach of networks. Univ Access Inf Soc 11, 323–335 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-011-0240-1

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