System for and method of relational database modeling of ad hoc distributed sensor networks

A network modeling agent for aggregating into a relational database model the state of an ad hoc network comprised of uniquely addressable distributed sensor nodes in communication using networking protocols with one another through links and to a database server through access points, the network modeling agent comprising:

• a relational database logical design resident on the database server in communication with the distributed sensor network, wherein the logical design is comprised of one or more tables specifying sensor node identities and node activity indicators, timestamping information, link identification, linked nodes information, historical link information, historical node information, and acquired sensor output data;
• computer code executable on the database server for executing at every access point the steps of:
• discovering the distributed sensor network topology by visiting a first node,
• marking the first node visited,
• pushing the marked first node onto a stack, and
• while the stack is non-empty,
• querying the node at the top of the stack for a list of current links to the node at the top,
• comparing the list of current links to a list of historical links to the node at the top of the stack and updating the historical link and historical node information,
• and if there are no unmarked nodes reachable from a current link then pop the stack,
• otherwise visiting the next reachable unmarked node, marking the next node and pushing it onto the stack;
• building a database model of the distributed sensor network by updating the relational database logical design tables at each step of the discovering step;
• and
• maintaining the database model by periodically rediscovering the distributed sensor network topology, thereby updating the database model to account for sensor node and link additions and deletions.