[PRE REVIEW]: Tenta: Remote and Real-Time Sensor Network Management

[editorialbot]

Submitting author: !--author-handle-->@empicano<!--end-author-handle-- (Felix Böhm) Repository: https://github.com/iterize/tenta Branch with paper.md (empty if default branch): Version: v0.1.0 Editor: !--editor-->@kanishkan91<!--end-editor-- Reviewers: !--reviewers-list-->@abhishektiwari<!--end-reviewers-list-- Managing EiC: Kristen Thyng

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Thanks for submitting your paper to JOSS @empicano. Currently, there isn't a JOSS editor assigned to your paper.

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[editorialbot]

Reference check summary (note 'MISSING' DOIs are suggestions that need verification):

OK DOIs

- None

MISSING DOIs

- 10.5194/amt-14-1111-2021 may be a valid DOI for title: MUCCnet: Munich urban carbon column network
- No DOI given, and none found for title: Advancing Urban Greenhouse Gas Monitoring: Develop...
- No DOI given, and none found for title: Integration and calibration of non-dispersive infr...
- No DOI given, and none found for title: Why trees grow at night
- 10.1145/1031495.1031522 may be a valid DOI for title: Hardware design experiences in ZebraNet
- 10.1109/mic.2006.26 may be a valid DOI for title: Deploying a wireless sensor network on an active v...
- 10.5194/egusphere-egu21-15182 may be a valid DOI for title: Stand-alone low-cost sensor network in the inner c...
- No DOI given, and none found for title: FROST Server
- 10.1017/cbo9780511586491.007 may be a valid DOI for title: polars
- No DOI given, and none found for title: Grafana
- No DOI given, and none found for title: TimescaleDB
- No DOI given, and none found for title: ThingsBoard
- No DOI given, and none found for title: ThingSpeak
- No DOI given, and none found for title: paho.mqtt.java
- No DOI given, and none found for title: paho.mqtt.c
- No DOI given, and none found for title: paho.mqtt.python
- No DOI given, and none found for title: MQTT.js
- No DOI given, and none found for title: PostgreSQL
- 10.1021/es404610t may be a valid DOI for title: High density ozone monitoring using gas sensitive ...
- 10.1109/ewsn.2005.1462004 may be a valid DOI for title: Design of an application-cooperative management sy...
- No DOI given, and none found for title: How did Swiss forest trees respond to the hot summ...
- 10.21105/joss.03075 may be a valid DOI for title: Thing Directory: Simple and lightweight registry o...
- No DOI given, and none found for title: Ivy

INVALID DOIs

- None

[editorialbot]

Software report:

github.com/AlDanial/cloc v 1.90  T=0.10 s (1163.9 files/s, 312604.1 lines/s)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language                      files          blank        comment           code
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JSON                             10              0              0          20663
TypeScript                       41            336             17           3908
Python                           18            521            305           2055
YAML                              4              4              0            655
Markdown                         19            219              0            599
SQL                               2             70             49            347
TeX                               1              0              0            201
JavaScript                        6              4             77            122
Bourne Again Shell                7             25             43             98
CSS                               2             27              0             81
JSX                               1              0              5             77
TOML                              2             11              0             70
Dockerfile                        1              8              4             17
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUM:                            114           1225            500          28893
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Commit count by author:

   125  Moritz Makowski
   101  Felix Böhm

[editorialbot]

Paper file info:

📄 Wordcount for paper.md is 1138

✅ The paper includes a Statement of need section

[editorialbot]

License info:

✅ License found: MIT License (Valid open source OSI approved license)

[editorialbot]

:point_right::page_facing_up: Download article proof :page_facing_up: View article proof on GitHub :page_facing_up: :point_left:

[editorialbot]

Five most similar historical JOSS papers:

BoboCEP: a Fault-Tolerant Complex Event Processing Engine for Edge Computing in Internet of Things Submitting author: @r3w0p Handling editor: @vissarion (Active) Reviewers: @abhishektiwari, @mahsan321 Similarity score: 0.6588

OpenTera: A Framework for Telehealth Applications Submitting author: @doumdi Handling editor: @galessiorob (Active) Reviewers: @Rocsg, @tmickleydoyle Similarity score: 0.6557

MAHOS: Measurement Automation Handling and Orchestration System Submitting author: @ktahar Handling editor: @arfon (Active) Reviewers: @sidihamady, @aquilesC Similarity score: 0.6550

SampleDB: A sample and measurement metadata database Submitting author: @FlorianRhiem Handling editor: @arfon (Active) Reviewers: @stuartcampbell, @dvanic Similarity score: 0.6532

Pyra: Automated EM27/SUN Greenhouse Gas Measurement Software Submitting author: @patrickjaigner Handling editor: @AoifeHughes (Retired) Reviewers: @nmstreethran, @arthur-e Similarity score: 0.6527

⚠️ Note to editors: If these papers look like they might be a good match, click through to the review issue for that paper and invite one or more of the authors before considering asking the reviewers of these papers to review again for JOSS.

[kthyng]

Hi @empicano and thanks for your submission! I am looking for some specific items to make sure your submission fits our requirements at a high level (not at the more detailed review level) before moving on to finding an editor or putting this on our waitlist if no relevant editors are available. I'll comment over time as I have a chance to go through them:

• [x] OSI-approved license
• [x] Installation instructions
• [x] Documentation
• [x] Tests of some sort
• [x] Check paper
• [ ] Substantial scholarly effort
• [ ] Clear research application/in scope

In the meantime, please take a look at the comments above ⬆️ from the editorialbot to address any DOI, license, or paper issues if you're able (there may not be any), or suggest reviewers. For reviewers, please suggest 5 reviewers from the database listed above or your own (non-conflicted) extended network. Their github handles are most useful to receive but please don't use "@" to reference them since it will prematurely ping them.

[empicano]

Hi there @kthyng, thank you for taking this on!

As reviewers, I suggest: yadudoc, sarathsp06, ChristopherHaydenTodd, nmstreethran, shahchiragh, and achanda

[empicano]

@editorialbot commands

[editorialbot]

Hello @empicano, here are the things you can ask me to do:

# List all available commands
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@editorialbot list editors

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@editorialbot generate my checklist

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[empicano]

@editorialbot check references

[editorialbot]

Reference check summary (note 'MISSING' DOIs are suggestions that need verification):

OK DOIs

- 10.5194/amt-14-1111-2021 is OK
- 10.5194/amt-13-3815-2020 is OK
- 10.1111/nph.17552 is OK
- 10.1145/1031495.1031522 is OK
- 10.1109/MIC.2006.26 is OK
- 10.5194/egusphere-egu21-15182 is OK
- 10.1021/es404610t is OK
- 10.1109/EWSN.2005.1462004 is OK
- 10.12854/erde-2019-420 is OK
- 10.21105/joss.03075 is OK

MISSING DOIs

- No DOI given, and none found for title: Advancing Urban Greenhouse Gas Monitoring: Develop...
- No DOI given, and none found for title: FROST Server
- 10.1017/cbo9780511586491.007 may be a valid DOI for title: polars
- No DOI given, and none found for title: Grafana
- No DOI given, and none found for title: TimescaleDB
- No DOI given, and none found for title: ThingsBoard
- No DOI given, and none found for title: ThingSpeak
- No DOI given, and none found for title: PostgreSQL
- No DOI given, and none found for title: Ivy

INVALID DOIs

- None

[kthyng]

@empicano I am going to ping the editorial board to have them see if this is in scope for JOSS, mainly in terms of whether this counts as "research software". This will probably take a few weeks, thanks for your patience.

[kthyng]

@editorialbot query scope

[editorialbot]

Submission flagged for editorial review.

[empicano]

Thank you for the update! I hope that I'm allowed to give some input:

Our research group builds sensor networks that measure environmental data like air quality and CO2. This data can e.g. be used to validate emission inventory data or find previously unknown emission sources.

Tenta allows (1.) to collect measurements of sensor networks remotely. This is not just a "nice-to-have", but a requirement for mid to large sensor networks. The sensor network that Tenta powers at our research group is deployed on rooftops that are difficult to access. We need remote management for such research, as regular physical visits would not be possible. Similarly, Tenta can enable research with sensor networks in remote areas. Tenta allows (2.) to configure sensors remotely. This allows us to react to sensor hardware and software failures much faster and thus increases data yield. Furthermore, this functionality allows running experiments while the sensors are in the field. The fact that Tenta links configurations with measurements leads to highly reproducible datasets.

In our research group Tenta thus "supports the functioning of research instruments or the execution of research experiments" (from JOSS's documentation: "What we mean by research software"). There is similar research to our CO2 sensor network e.g. cited in the introduction or ICOS Cities, where we believe Tenta can be useful as well.

Our research group has previously published related software in JOSS that is also used to support sensor networks with Pyra: Automated EM27/SUN Greenhouse Gas Measurement Software. I believe that Thing Directory: Simple and lightweight registry of IoT device metadata is another JOSS publication that is very similar to this Tenta paper submission.

I also hope that I can alleviate some concerns about the dashboard: The main contribution is the server with its data processing/storage and MQTT communication with the sensors (this also reflects in the amount of work that went into them: The dashboard was developed in around 2 months, while the server took a year of full time work). The server is useful and usable on its own, the dashboard only provides a nice interface to the REST endpoints. In fact, we ran the server without any dashboard for quite a while ourselves in the beginning. The server is well tested and can easily be run locally, as the test and development scripts automatically spin up PostgreSQL/TimescaleDB and Mosquitto instances via Docker.

Thank you for your consideration.

[kthyng]

@empicano Thank you, yes, the editors that take a look will see your comments to add to their understanding of the software.

[kthyng]

Ok this has passed the editorial review fine!

[kthyng]

I will add it to our waitlist while I find/wait for a relevant editor to have capacity.

[kthyng]

@faroit Would this be in your wheelhouse at all?

[kthyng]

@editorialbot invite @faroit as editor

[editorialbot]

Invitation to edit this submission sent!

[empicano]

Ok this has passed the editorial review fine!

That's great to hear! Thank you for your efforts.

[faroit]

@kthyng I thoroughly checked the submission but I have to say that, unfortunately, I'm not comfortable editing this. It's neither in my scientific domain nor am I up-to-date in web app dev.

If there is absolutely no one else available I could do it but not starting before mid-August.

[kthyng]

@faroit Ok thanks for the check and the note; I'll see who else I can find in the meantime.

[kthyng]

@galessiorob Hi! Could you edit this submission?

[kthyng]

@editorialbot invite @galessiorob as editor

[editorialbot]

Invitation to edit this submission sent!

[kthyng]

@kanishkan91 Could you edit this submission?

[kthyng]

@editorialbot invite @kanishkan91 as editor

[editorialbot]

Invitation to edit this submission sent!

[kanishkan91]

@kthyng My apologies for the late reply! I can edit this

[kthyng]

@editorialbot assign @kanishkan91 as editor

[editorialbot]

Assigned! @kanishkan91 is now the editor

[dostuffthatmatters]

Hi @kthyng, hi @kanishkan91,

Thank you, @empicano, for elaborating on why this counts as research software.

The software is running stable in production on 20 sensor systems even one year after @empicano left our research group.

The dashboard directly offers a suitable User Interface for versionized device configurations. The UIs of competing tools (Thingsboard and equivalent) require workarounds to achieve a similar result but with more clicks and window changes. I just updated the documentation on how to host the dashboard.

Thank you for editing this paper! Best regards,

Moritz Makowski (second author of the paper) Doctoral Candidate Environmental Sensing and Modeling | Technical University of Munich

[dostuffthatmatters]

@editorialbot generate pdf

[editorialbot]

:point_right::page_facing_up: Download article proof :page_facing_up: View article proof on GitHub :page_facing_up: :point_left:

[editorialbot]

Five most similar historical JOSS papers:

Mantik: A Workflow Platform for the Development of Artificial Intelligence on High-Performance Computing Infrastructures Submitting author: @rico-berner Handling editor: @arfon (Active) Reviewers: @zhaozhang, @gflofst Similarity score: 0.6588

OpenTera: A Framework for Telehealth Applications Submitting author: @doumdi Handling editor: @galessiorob (Active) Reviewers: @Rocsg, @tmickleydoyle Similarity score: 0.6561

Pyra: Automated EM27/SUN Greenhouse Gas Measurement Software Submitting author: @patrickjaigner Handling editor: @AoifeHughes (Retired) Reviewers: @nmstreethran, @arthur-e Similarity score: 0.6547

MAHOS: Measurement Automation Handling and Orchestration System Submitting author: @ktahar Handling editor: @arfon (Active) Reviewers: @sidihamady, @aquilesC Similarity score: 0.6544

SampleDB: A sample and measurement metadata database Submitting author: @FlorianRhiem Handling editor: @arfon (Active) Reviewers: @stuartcampbell, @dvanic Similarity score: 0.6519

⚠️ Note to editors: If these papers look like they might be a good match, click through to the review issue for that paper and invite one or more of the authors before considering asking the reviewers of these papers to review again for JOSS.

[kanishkan91]

@empicano - Sorry about the delay. I was away on paternity leave. I will make sure this review gets started in the next week.

[empicano]

No worries, best wishes to you and your family!

[kanishkan91]

@empicano , @kthyng Quick update. I just got back from medical leave. I am in the process of finding a second reviewer for this. After that, I can get the review started. Moving forward feel free to ping me in this thread in case you need an update. My hope is that after the review gets started, you'll have review comments within the next month. Let me know what you think.

[empicano]

Sounds great, thanks for the update! Let us know in case we can assist you with anything.

[abhishektiwari]

@kanishkan91 Feel free to add me 2nd reviewer on this submission.

[kanishkan91]

@editorialbot add @abhishektiwari as reviewer

[editorialbot]

@abhishektiwari added to the reviewers list!

[kanishkan91]

@abhishektiwari - Thanks, I just invited. @empicano I'm going to kick off this review while I assign a second reviewer, so that the review can get started.

[kanishkan91]

@editorialbot start review

[editorialbot]

OK, I've started the review over in https://github.com/openjournals/joss-reviews/issues/7311.