Robust architecture for distributed intelligence in an IP-based mobile wide-area surveillance system

Modern IP-based wide-area surveillance systems often build on networks of multi-modal, intelligent and mobile sensor units. Detection of complex events is performed on intelligent sensors and fusing input in the sensor units or centralized control room components. The domain of surveillance and public safety creates requirement for robustness and fault-tolerance. This article will present an automated intelligence architecture for mobile surveillance, which provides capabilities for combining on-board event detection in sensor units, centralized decision making on the server side, and automated exploitation of mobile surveillance unit positioning data. This architecture must be very reliable to provide services in the face of challenges such as natural disasters and fire, potentially damaging the infrastructure of the surveillance system. To increase its reliability and robustness, we study the introduction of a self-healing system into the architecture and examine the combined system’s operation in three case studies.