A rule-based programming model for wireless sensor networks [article]

Kirsten Terfloth, Universitätsbibliothek Der FU Berlin, Universitätsbibliothek Der FU Berlin
2009
Increased efforts towards device miniaturization have led to the emergence of a new class of ad-hoc networks, the so called wireless sensor networks. Individual devices or nodes are commonly battery-powered, small in size, equipped with a variety of sensors, frugal processing capabilities and a wireless transceiver. Spatially distributed within a deployment area, these nodes are able to autonomously form a network and cooperatively serve a specified task, for instance to acquire environmental
more » ... ta, to detect predefined events and/or to enable direct, physical interaction. Applications that rely on wireless sensor network technology are therefore typically concerned with the investigation of phenomena that either spread over a large area, that demand for autonomous scheduling over a great period of time, that require unobtrusive mechanisms for data collection or immediate reactivity to observed states. A wireless sensor network can hence be understood as an application enabler, a tool which can be utilized to build a specific application rather than having a purpose of its own. Application development for these kinds of networks is however complex, errorprone and tedious: Resource scarcity, timing constraints and a typically asynchronous operational model inherent to embedded devices are directly exposed to a programmer while at the same time, the need to map application semantics to run on a distributed, unreliable network has to be objected. Instead of being able to implement the envisioned application in a problem-oriented manner, the developer is forced to take a system-oriented viewpoint. This circumstance is especially disadvantageous when considering application domain experts and not professional software developers to be prospective users. This thesis proposes a holistic programming model called FACTS that combines two well-known mechanisms for abstracting from low-level challenges into a dedicated framework for wireless sensor network programming: Abstraction through provision of a better conceptual mode [...]
doi:10.17169/refubium-12445 fatcat:7fcot7u4kng2zgfdnhsnpwuqi4