VISIBILITY AND CONTROL OF WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

• US 20080320130A1
• Filed: 04/18/2008
• Published: 12/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Laboratories America Inc (NEC Corporation)
• Inventors: CHAKRADHAR, Srimat, RAGHUNATHAN, Vijay, SULTAN, Florin, NAGARAJA, Kiran, KOTHARI, Nupur
• Granted Patent: US 7,921,206 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3696 Methods or tools to render software testable
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A computer implemented technique framework, prototype tool and associated methods that provide a high degree of visibility and control over the in-field execution of software in a minimally intrusive manner wherein developer-defined correctness tests and validation logic are embedded into the sensor node itself, making in-field software testing autonomous without necessitating continuous developer participation.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for monitoring and controlling a network of wireless sensor nodes comprising the steps of:

generating an interposition module for a target module associated with one of said sensor nodes; and

interposing the interposition module between the target module and sensor runtime such that said interposition module may observe and control any interactions to/from the target module.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein said generating step further comprises the steps of:

parsing the target module'"'"'s source code to determine any specific interfaces that the target module uses to interact with any sensor runtime modules.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein said generating step further comprises the steps of:

synthesizing a template interposition stub customized for the target module and the specific interfaces used by that module.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 wherein said generating step further comprises the steps of:

packaging the template interposition stub into an interposition binary module.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 wherein said specific interfaces are selected from the group consisting of:

functions provided by the target module;

handlers for events and messages received from other modules and the runtime; and

functions provided by the runtime and other modules that are invoked or otherwise used by the running target module.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 further comprising the steps of:

providing to the runtime by the interposition module, a handler or function corresponding to each handler or function provided by the target module.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 further comprising the steps of:

providing to the target module by the interposition module, a corresponding interface for every function invoked by the target module into the runtime or another module such that the interposition module mimics the runtime from the target module perspective and the target module from the runtime perspective.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 further CHARACTERIZED BY dynamic extensibility wherein interposition modules are included into sensor nodes after deployment of said nodes.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 further comprising the steps of:

providing, to the target module by the interposition module, a corresponding interface for a subset of every function invoked by the target module into the runtime or another module such that the interposition module mimics this subset of the runtime from the target module perspective.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 further comprising the steps of:

selectively enabling/disabling the interposition module in a deployed, running node.