OSone: A distributed operating system for energy efficient Sensor Network

Abstract

In this paper, we take a new approach of thinking about programming Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and introduce OSone, a distributed operating system (OS) for sensor transparency. Our philosophy is to make the network look like an ordinary computer, where each sensor of the network can be thought of one or multiple applications. Such a system allows software developers to abstract away from networking protocols and low-level operating system issues, and develop complex, cooperating systems. In our system, the base station acts as the “kernel” of the OS, while applications run on the sensor nodes. To evaluate the system, we use smart home as our application scenario, where the house adapts to the people living in it - turns on and off the heating and light, warns if the doors are left open, and so on. For such an application, a sensor network is the ideal solution. We show that our system can scale up to a hundred nodes without affecting the responsiveness, it can move 96% of the energy consumption to the central kernel node; and can be about 30% more efficient than a traditional approach.