Efficient code distribution in wireless sensor networks

ABSTRACT

The need to reprogramme a wireless sensor network may arise from changing application requirements, bug fixes, or during the application development cycle. Once deployed, it will be impractical at best to reach each individual node. Thus, a scheme is required to wirelessly reprogramme the nodes. We present an energy-efficient code distribution scheme to wirelessly update the code running in a sensor network. Energy is saved by distributing only the changes to the currently running code. The new code image is built using an edit script of commands that are easy to process by the nodes. A small change to the programme code can cause many changes to the binary code because the addresses of functions and data change. A naive approach to building the edit script string would result in a large script. We describe a number of optimisations and present experimental results showing that these significantly reduce the edit script size.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.2 Network Protocols
          Subjects: Applications (SMTP, FTP, etc.)

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.3 Network Operations

  E. Data
  E.4 CODING AND INFORMATION THEORY

General Terms:
Design, Performance

Keywords:
code distribution, compression, reprogramming, sensor networks, string distance, wireless