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Section: New Software and Platforms
Wombat
Wi-Fi tracking system for testing and demonstrational purpose
Keywords: Wi-Fi - Privacy - Multimodal tracking of human activity - Wireless network
Functional Description: Wombat is a fully functional Wi-Fi tracking platform supporting three main features: collection, storage/processing, query/output. These three features are implemented through a distributed infrastructure composed of:
Sensor nodes: small devices with wireless monitoring capabilities. They collect information sent on wireless channels and forward it to the server. Central server: the central entity of the system. It receives data sent by sensor nodes and then stores it in an internal data structure. It is also in charge of answering queries related to the stored data.
To ensure communication between the sensor nodes and the server, the Wombat system relies on a wired network (Ethernet). In addition, Wombat can be enriched with a user interface and an opt-out node:
User interface: a device in charge of displaying detailed information about one or several tracked devices (see figure below). The device to display can be specified manually by its MAC address or through proximity detection. Opt-out node: an element in charge of implementing an opt-out mechanism for users refusing to be tracked by the system.
The system is made to work on a dedicated network (the server includes a DHCP server). Nodes can be switched off at any time (they function in read-only mode to be crash-proof).