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Reconfigurable Component-based Middleware for Networked Embedded Systems

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Next generation embedded systems will be composed of large numbers of heterogeneous devices. These will typically be resource-constrained (such as sensor motes), will use different operating systems, and will be connected through different types of network interfaces. Additionally, they may be mobile and/or form ad-hoc networks with their peers, and will need to be adaptive to changing conditions based on context-awareness. Our focus in this paper is on the provision of a middleware framework for such system environments. Our approach is based on a small and efficient ‘middleware kernel’ which supports highly modularised and customisable component-based middleware services that can be tailored for specific embedded environments, and are runtime reconfigurable to support adaptivity. These services are primarily communications-related but also address a range of other concerns including service discovery and logical mobility. In the paper we provide an overview of our approach, focusing in detail on both the middleware kernel and the services. We also discuss an application scenario in which we are currently applying and evaluating our middleware approach.

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Notes

  1. Apart from these, additional components can be optionally included to extend the overlay’s behaviour, e.g., a network QoS measurement component.

  2. Note that Figure 10 presents the framework as an object-oriented one. In implementations in which classes and objects are not available, other constructs (such as dynamic libraries) are used.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank their partners in the RUNES Project and to acknowledge the financial support given to this research by the European Commission.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dip. di Elettronica ed Informazione, Politecnico di Milano, P.zza L. Da Vinci 32, Milan, 20133, Italy

    Paolo Costa, Luca Mottola & Gian Pietro Picco

  2. Department of Computing, Lancaster University, South Drive, Lancaster, LA1 4WA, UK

    Geoff Coulson

  3. Department of Computer Science, University College London, Gower St., London, WC1 6BT, UK

    Cecilia Mascolo & Stefanos Zachariadis

Authors
  1. Paolo Costa
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  2. Geoff Coulson
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  3. Cecilia Mascolo
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  4. Luca Mottola
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  5. Gian Pietro Picco
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  6. Stefanos Zachariadis
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Correspondence to Cecilia Mascolo.

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Costa, P., Coulson, G., Mascolo, C. et al. Reconfigurable Component-based Middleware for Networked Embedded Systems. Int J Wireless Inf Networks 14, 149–162 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10776-007-0057-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10776-007-0057-2

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