A TTF-Based Programming Model and a Support Kernel Running on a Communicating Sensor Platform

An attractive program component model for use in constructing reliable networks of sensor nodes communicating via wireless channels is the time-triggered function (TTF). In general, when an application is structured as a network of TTFs, the timing behavior of the application can be analyzed relatively easily. The TTF network programming model has been refined somewhat in the past two years. Also, in the past five years, we have been refining the architecture and a prototype of a small-footprint time-sliced multi-threading kernel that runs on a communicating-sensor platform and contains TTF support mechanisms. The kernel is called the TTF Support OS (TSOS). Some of the refinements made are discussed here. Also, some performance evaluations of both the refined TSOS prototype and the TTF programming scheme have been conducted and the results are presented