Sensor integration

A sensor integration uses the Picogrid ECN SDK to publish measurements or detections to an Expeditionary C2 Node (ECN) as entities and location updates. The supported pattern gives every entity one canonical UUID and uses that UUID to correlate its entity and location events.

Start with the sensor publisher quickstart to validate the basic workflow, then use the publication and observation tasks below for your integration.

Model the sensor

1. Assign one durable canonical UUID.
2. Choose the narrowest entity category: commonly SENSOR, DETECTION, or TRACK.
3. Choose a stable, application-specific type.
4. Use display metadata for operator-facing labels, not identity.
5. Reuse the configured integration name in every publication.

Publish updates

Publish an entity when identity or metadata becomes available and when its meaningful state changes. Publish dedicated locations or Position Location Information (PLI) when position changes. An entity may also carry an embedded location with the same event timestamp.

The JSON and protobuf formats share the same typed model. Select the publication format with ECN_WIRE_FORMAT; do not change formats to bypass validation.

TRACK entity publication uses QoS 0. Other entity categories and location publications, including PLI, use QoS 1. Design your source to tolerate duplicate delivery and to avoid unbounded retry loops. The SDK does not automatically republish after a failure.

Validate and observe

Use the network-free checks first:

python examples/publish_entity.py --check
python examples/publish_location.py --check

Against the loopback mock, open an exact observer before publishing to exercise the complete round trip. Against a live ECN, publish only synthetic or operational data the broker ACL explicitly authorizes.

Continue with these tasks:

• Publish entities, locations, and PLI
• Watch tracks and detections
• Observe ECN location
• Observe mesh-routed data

See Wire formats and Compatibility and limitations.