Method and apparatus for internetworked wireless integrated network sensor (WINS) nodes

A network node means comprising:

• means for coupling the network node, said node comprising at least one sensor, and a plurality of network elements an a plurality of network elements among an environment and at least one remote computer;
• means for collecting data from the environment;
• means for receiving signals that remotely control the network node;
• means for providing node information from the node to the plurality of network elements;
• and
• means for distributing processing of the collected data among the plurality of network elements in response to the node information, wherein the distributed processing comprises multiple processing levels accessible from the remote computer, wherein processing within the node means includes a preprocessor coupled to at least one processor, the preprocessor running real time processes, wherein the node means is configurable at one of a plurality of programming layers rough a plurality of application program interfaces (APIs), wherein the programming layers comprise a physical layer including real-time processes, and an operating system layer including non-real time processes.