The RUNES Middleware for Networked Embedded Systems and its Application in a Disaster Management Scenario

  • Authors:

  • Paolo Costa;Geoff Coulson;Richard Gold;Manish Lad;Cecilia Mascolo;Luca Mottola;Gian Pietro Picco;Thirunavukkarasu Sivaharan;Nirmal Weerasinghe;Stefanos Zachariadis

  • Affiliations:

  • Politecnico di Milano, Italy;Lancaster University, UK;University College London, UK;University College London, UK;University College London, UK;Politecnico di Milano, Italy;Politecnico di Milano, Italy/ University of Trento, Italy;Lancaster University, UK;Lancaster University, UK;University College London, UK

  • Venue:
  • PERCOM '07 Proceedings of the Fifth IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

Due to the inherent nature of their heterogeneity, resource scarcity and dynamism, the provision of middleware for future networked embedded environments is a challeng- ing task. In this paper we present a middleware approach that addresses these key challenges; we also discuss its ap- plication in a realistic networked embedded environment. Our application scenario involves fire management in a road tunnel that is instrumented with networked sensor and actuator devices. These devices are able to reconfigure their behaviour and their information dissemination strate- gies as they become damaged under emergency conditions, and firefighters are able to coordinate their operations and manage sensors and actuators through dynamic reprogram- ming. Our supporting middleware is based on a two-level architecture: the foundation is a language-independent, component-based programming model that is sufficiently minimal to run on any of the devices typically found in net- worked embedded environments. Above this is a layer of software components that offer the necessary middleware functionality. Rather than providing a monolithic middle- ware "layer', we separate orthogonal areas of middleware functionality into self-contained components that can be se- lectively and individually deployed according to current re- source constraints and application needs. Crucially, the set of such components can be updated at runtime to provide the basis of a highly dynamic and reconfigurable system.