Decoding Code on a Sensor Node

Abstract. Wireless sensor networks come of age and start moving out of the laboratory into the field. As the number of deployments is increasing the need for an efficient and reliable code update mechanism becomes pressing. Reasons for updates are manifold ranging from fixing software bugs to retasking the whole sensor network. The scale of deployments and the potential physical inaccessibility of individual nodes asks for a wireless software management scheme. In this paper we present an efficient code update strategy which utilizes the knowledge of former program versions to distribute mere incremental changes. Using a small set of instructions, a delta of minimal size is generated. This delta is then disseminated throughout the network allowing nodes to rebuild the new application based on their currently running code. The asymmetry of computational power available during the process of encoding (PC) and decoding (sensor node) necessitates a careful balancing of the decoder complexi...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: DCOSS
• Authors: Pascal von Rickenbach, Roger Wattenhofer
• Keywords: Code Update, DCOSS 2008, Distributed And Parallel Computing, Sensor Network, Wireless Sensor Networks