Eon: a language and runtime system for perpetual systems

  • Authors:

  • Jacob Sorber;Alexander Kostadinov;Matthew Garber;Matthew Brennan;Mark D. Corner;Emery D. Berger

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA;University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA;University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA;Viterbi School of Engineering, Los Angeles, CA;University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA;University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 5th international conference on Embedded networked sensor systems
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

Embedded systems can operate perpetually without being connected to a power source by harvesting environmental energy from motion, the sun, wind, or heat differentials. However, programming these perpetual systems is challenging. In response to changing energy levels, programmers can adjust the execution frequency of energy-intensive tasks, or provide higher service levels when energy is plentiful and lower service levels when energy is scarce. However, it is often difficult for programmers to predict the energy consumption resulting from these adjustments. Worse, explicit energy management can tie a program to a particular hardware platform, limiting portability. This paper introduces Eon, a programming language and runtime system designed to support the development of perpetual systems. To our knowledge, Eon is the first energy-aware programming language. Eon is a declarative coordination language that lets programmers compose programs from components written in C or nesC. Paths through the program ("flows") may be annotated with different energy states. Eon's automatic energy management then dynamically adapts these states to current and predicted energy levels. It chooses flows to execute and adjusts their rates of execution, maximizing the quality of service under available energy constraints. We demonstrate the utility and portability of Eon by deploying two perpetual applications on widely different hardware platforms: a GPS-based location tracking sensor deployed on a threatened species of turtle and on automobiles, and a solar-powered camera sensor for remote, ad-hoc deployments. We also evaluate the simplicity and effectiveness of Eon with a user study, in which novice Eon programmers produced more efficient efficient energy-adaptive systems in substantially less time than experienced C programmers.