Next generation embedded systems place new demands on an efficient methodology for their design and verification. These systems have to support interaction over a network, multiple concurrent applications and changing operating conditions. Therefore, besides existing requirements like low cost and high performance, new demands like adaptivity and reconfigurability arise. Traditional design methodologies do not support exploration and implementation of this flavor of networked embedded systems. In this paper, we present a suitable methodology and a flexible experimental environment which supports design exploration and prototyping of dynamically reconfigurable embedded systems based on Java specifications.