Model-driven approach for building efficient Wireless Sensor and Actuator Network applications

Abstract

The research on Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSAN) has evolved with applications in several domains. However, WSAN application development is hampered by the need of programming in low-level abstractions provided by sensor operation systems and the need of having specific knowledge about both the application domain and the sensor platform. The high coupling between application code and sensor platforms, combined with a lack of methodology to support the application development cycle, results in platform-dependent projects that are difficult to maintain, modify, and reuse. To cope with this issue, we propose an MDA approach for developing WSAN applications. Our proposal allows Domain Experts to directly contribute during development using their application-level knowledge; at the same time it allows Network Experts to program WSAN nodes using their network-level knowledge while meeting application functional and non-functional requirements, closing the gap between the two expertise levels.