ERIKA and open-ZB: an implementation for real-time wireless networking

ABSTRACT

IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee and TinyOS have been playing an important role in leveraging a new generation of large-scale networked embedded systems. However, based on previous experience on the implementation and use of the IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee protocols over TinyOS, several problems (producing loss of synchronization and even network failures) emerge due to some limitations of this OS, namely related to the lack of task pre-emption and prioritization. When real-time guarantees are required, different software solutions must be used to support real-time services in such networked applications. This being our objective, we implemented the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol over ERIKA, a real-time operating system for resource-constrained embedded systems. The results attained so far, and summarized in this short paper, demonstrate that ERIKA enables reliable network behaviour and improved network performance. This paper outlines the most important aspects of the software implementation and reports comparative experimental results based on real platforms.

REFERENCES

• 1: IEEE 802.15 WPAN#8482;Task Group 4 (TG4).
• 2: ZigBee Alliance (2006), ZigBee Specification 2006.
• 3: Open-ZB open-source toolset for the IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee protocols web site. http://www.open-zb.net.
• 4: University of California, Berkeley (CA, USA). The TinyOS Operating System. http://www.tinyos.net/.
• 5: The E.R.I.K.A. Enterprise realtime Operating System. http://www.evidence.eu.com/.
• 6: P. Pagano, R. Severino, et al. ERIKA and Open-ZB: a tool suite for real-time wireless networked applications. Technical report, HURRAY-TR-031008, October 2008.
• 7: The FLEX evaluation board. http://www.evidence.eu.com.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.1 Network Architecture and Design

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.3 SPECIAL-PURPOSE AND APPLICATION-BASED SYSTEMS