An operating system that is designed or customized for fulfilling the interests of an application or of a set of similar applications that share a significant part of the requirements. This kind of system must include specific mechanisms and policies, in order to effectively serve the interest of the applications.
Published in Chapter:
Programming Body Sensor Networks
Gervásio Iwens (University of Brasília, Brazil), Hervaldo Sampaio Carval (University of Brasília, Brazil), and Talles Marcelo Gonçalves de Andrade Barbosa (University of Brasília, Brazil)
Copyright: © 2008
|Pages: 10
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-889-5.ch138
Abstract
According to Barbosa, Sene, Carvalho, da Rocha, Nascimento, and Camapum (2006), two important concepts related to programmability in BSNs are: (i) deployment-time programmability, and (ii) run-time set-up. The deployment-time programmability refers to the definition of software artifacts and algorithms that are embedded in the sensor node. In BSNs, the inclusion of this functionality requires a programming interface that is suitable for healthcare personnel, as well as intelligent compilers. Intelligent compilers should be capable of handling implicit functional and nonfunctional requisites of a program. As an example, the inclusion of mechanisms and policies for energy saving could be treated by these structures. The run-time set-up refers to the capability for adjustments in run-time. The BSN should provide interactivity between the healthcare professional (the BSN manager) and the system. As a requisite, sensor nodes need mechanisms that allow a better control of the tasks that are being run. A possible solution is the use of data structures that allow preemptive multitasking. The goal of this article is to present the current state of the art, regarding programmability in BSNs. Moreover, we want to present potential benefits of a paradigm shift in which healthcare professionals become the actual programmers and maintainers of the BSNs. With that in mind, we briefly present a software architecture that has been developed with the goal of allowing programmability at network and sensor node levels.