Dynamic Sensor Network Reprogramming Using Sensorscheme

Building wireless sensor network applications is a challenging task, and it has become apparent that it is crucial for many sensor networks to be able to load or update the application after deployment. Since communication is a scarce resource and costly in terms of energy, it is important to minimize code size when reprogramming WSNs in the field. This paper introduces SensorScheme as a novel interpreted WSN platform for dynamically loading sensor network applications. It is based on the semantics of the Scheme language and is equipped with high-level programming facilities such as higher-order functions, garbage collection, communication by automatic marshalling of data items, and co-routines to implement blocking I/O operations. SensorScheme makes efficient use of the little available memory in WSN nodes, uses a very compact program notation during wireless transmission, and provides a safe interpreted execution environment, preventing malfunctioning programs from crashing the device. We illustrate the use of SensorScheme and evaluate its code compactness and energy- efficiency.