Towards context-oriented programming in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

We present our ongoing work towards applying the context-oriented programming (COP) paradigm to wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Context---as a representation of the environment where the system operates---plays a key role in WSN applications, which must often adapt their operation depending on environmental conditions. We argue that promoting a notion of context as a first-class citizen in WSN programming facilitates the design and implementation of context-dependent functionality. To this end, we conceive a context-oriented programming model expressly tailored to WSNs, coupled with dedicated language constructs. Unlike the existing literature on COP, we embed the latter within low-level C-like languages that do not rely on resource-intensive features such as dynamic memory management. To make our design concrete, we describe a context-oriented extension of nesC---a widely used WSN programming language---and report on a preliminary assessment of our design.