Programming a Sensor Network as an Amorphous Medium

In many sensor network applications, the network is deployedto approximate a physical space. The network itself is not ofinterest: rather, we are interested in measuring the propertiesof the space it fills, and of establishing control over thebehavior of that space.The spatial nature of sensor netwo...

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Main Authors: Bachrach, Jonathan, Beal, Jacob
Other Authors: Howard Shrobe
Language:en_US
Published: 2006
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34223
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author Bachrach, Jonathan
Beal, Jacob
author2 Howard Shrobe
author_facet Howard Shrobe
Bachrach, Jonathan
Beal, Jacob
author_sort Bachrach, Jonathan
collection MIT
description In many sensor network applications, the network is deployedto approximate a physical space. The network itself is not ofinterest: rather, we are interested in measuring the propertiesof the space it fills, and of establishing control over thebehavior of that space.The spatial nature of sensor network applications meansthat many can be expressed naturally and succinctly in termsof the global behavior of an amorphous medium---a continuouscomputational material filling the space of interest. Althoughwe cannot construct such a material, we can approximateit using a sensor network.Using this amorphous medium abstraction separates sensornetwork problems into two largely independent domains.Above the abstraction barrier we are concerned with longrangecoordination and concise description of applications,while below the barrier we are concerned with fast, efficient,and robust communication between neighboring devices.We apply the amorphous medium abstraction with Proto,a high-level language for programming sensor/actuator networks.Existing applications, such as target tracking andthreat avoidance, can be expressed in only a few lines of Protocode. The applications are then compiled for execution on akernel that approximates an amorphous medium. Programswritten using our Proto implementation have been verified insimulation on over ten thousand nodes, as well as on a networkof Berkeley Motes.
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spelling mit-1721.1/342232019-04-11T09:50:09Z Programming a Sensor Network as an Amorphous Medium Bachrach, Jonathan Beal, Jacob Howard Shrobe AIRE amorphous computing In many sensor network applications, the network is deployedto approximate a physical space. The network itself is not ofinterest: rather, we are interested in measuring the propertiesof the space it fills, and of establishing control over thebehavior of that space.The spatial nature of sensor network applications meansthat many can be expressed naturally and succinctly in termsof the global behavior of an amorphous medium---a continuouscomputational material filling the space of interest. Althoughwe cannot construct such a material, we can approximateit using a sensor network.Using this amorphous medium abstraction separates sensornetwork problems into two largely independent domains.Above the abstraction barrier we are concerned with longrangecoordination and concise description of applications,while below the barrier we are concerned with fast, efficient,and robust communication between neighboring devices.We apply the amorphous medium abstraction with Proto,a high-level language for programming sensor/actuator networks.Existing applications, such as target tracking andthreat avoidance, can be expressed in only a few lines of Protocode. The applications are then compiled for execution on akernel that approximates an amorphous medium. Programswritten using our Proto implementation have been verified insimulation on over ten thousand nodes, as well as on a networkof Berkeley Motes. 2006-10-03T14:06:44Z 2006-10-03T14:06:44Z 2006-06 MIT-CSAIL-TR-2006-069 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34223 DCOSS 2006 (Extended Abstract) en_US Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory 6 p. 374454 bytes 4831946 bytes application/pdf application/postscript application/pdf application/postscript
spellingShingle amorphous computing
Bachrach, Jonathan
Beal, Jacob
Programming a Sensor Network as an Amorphous Medium
title Programming a Sensor Network as an Amorphous Medium
title_full Programming a Sensor Network as an Amorphous Medium
title_fullStr Programming a Sensor Network as an Amorphous Medium
title_full_unstemmed Programming a Sensor Network as an Amorphous Medium
title_short Programming a Sensor Network as an Amorphous Medium
title_sort programming a sensor network as an amorphous medium
topic amorphous computing
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34223
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