Remote Target Monitoring in Embedded Systems Lab Courses using a Sensor Network

This paper describes an architecture for remote monitoring of a distributed embedded system via Internet. The data at the target system is gathered with a time-triggered sensor network which transmits the measured values to a local target server. The sensor network approach makes the system easily adaptable to different embedded target systems. The sensor network is connected to a target server that communicates via Internet with visualization and programming tools at the monitoring computer. The visualization clients provide a live display of the parameters of the observed system. The target server acts as a gateway between target system and monitoring clients and provides security and authentication features for connecting monitoring clients. One target server is able to serve for multiple target systems. As a case study, the presented system will be used in an embedded systems lab course where students are requested to implement various applications on an embedded target board. Using the remote monitoring feature, a student is able to do the work from his or her home place