SensRNet
SensRNet (Sensor Registration Network) is a Kadaster Labs initiative to make sensors in public spaces registrable in a centralised yet distributed way. As solution architect, I was responsible for the architectural vision and technical direction of the project.
Background
Cities and municipalities are placing an increasing number of sensors in public spaces — from air quality monitors to cameras and noise meters. There was no central place where citizens and governments could see which sensors were installed, who owned them, and what they measured. SensRNet set out to provide that transparency.
Architecture
The core of SensRNet is a decentralised network of registry nodes — each participating government body (municipality, water board, province) manages its own node. At the same time, a shared view emerges: all nodes synchronise their sensor data with each other.
Key technical choices:
- Event-driven: all mutations (adding, moving, removing a sensor) are stored as events — similar to event sourcing. The current state can always be derived from the event history.
- MultiChain as synchronisation mechanism: a distributed ledger-like solution for guaranteed event ordering between nodes without a central authority.
- Kubernetes for deployment: container orchestration to manage operational complexity for participants.
- Central viewer: a map application showing all registered sensors, publicly accessible.
My role
As solution architect I steered the architectural vision and fundamental design decisions:
- Design of the distributed network model
- Evaluation and decision-making around blockchain/MultiChain as synchronisation technology
- Guiding the development team through architectural challenges
- Involvement with the Functional Advisory Board (FAB) and the Common Ground community
- Documentation of architectural decisions (ADRs)
Results
- Working production, demo, and test environments (now archived)
- Extensive open-source documentation and architecture descriptions
- Scientific paper (2021) on the project
- Blueprint for a federated sensor registry that can serve as a reference for similar initiatives
Status
Active development is paused. The knowledge gained and the architectural design live on as a reference for comparable initiatives within the digital government.