netbeams
Project home

NetBEAMS extends the scalability, sensor integration, and data management capabilities of the Java Distributed Data Acquisition and Control (JDDAC) platform. This project builds on JDDAC to create a significant, long term, real-world sensor network application.    

The NetBEAMS project interfaces a marine monitoring sensor array to low power wireless communication devices based on the JDDAC platform and measurement data models. Communication occurs over a wide area cellular network infrastructure. This project significantly expands the reach of existing measurement systems, which are tethered dock-side, to allow them to be deployed at remote locations and offshore.

NetBEAMS received the 2005 Duke's Choice Award at the annual JavaOne conference.

Click the image to the left to see real-time bay conditions, provided by the the live data site operated by the Department of Computer Science at San Francisco State University!

Project Objective

The scope of this project includes wired and wireless sensor arrays in various locations in San Francisco Bay. Measurements taken include pertinent water quality and environmental data including temperature, pressure, salinity, and turbitity.

NetBEAMS will significantly contribute to the environmental monitoring capabilities of CICORE, the Center for Integrative Coastal Observation, Research and Education. CICORE ultimately plans to establish oceanographic monitoring along the entire 1200 miles of California coastline.

You can access additional information related to NetBEAMS here.

Project Partnership

This project is a multidisciplinary collaboration between the JDDAC Community on java.net and San Francisco State University, including the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Engineering and the Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies.

San Francisco State University provides the academic leadership as well as participation by top SFSU graduate students. Student work is funded and contributes to both professional preparation and academic credits. The Romberg Center continues to provide open public access to the real-time data obtained from the sensor network as it does today for SF-BEAMS.

Funding is provided through a research grant from Agilent Laboratories matched by in kind contributions from Sun Microsystems.  Learn more about the individual participants here.

Project Coordination

Meetings are held on Friday afternoons from 3:00 to 4:00 PM PST through teleconference calls. Current task lists can be found here.

You can also follow what's happening with the project by checking out our mailing list archives.

Project Status

As of March 2006, we have recently completed the following items:

1. Presented the NetBEAMS results and infrastructure at the 2006 AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting.

and we are currently working on the following items:

1. Documenting the system for preparing for deployment at other sites
2. Using Siemens TC65 module as controller.
3. Adding weather station to sensor array.
4. Ruggedizing the entire system.
5. Integrating other CICORE measurements into NetBEAMS platform.

For additional information, please contact Jerry Liu or Arno Puder.

Last updated: March 10, 2006.