Design of Application Modules for Upgradeable Wireless Sensor Network Operating Systems

In most embedded systems, the software environment which includes the operating system, system libraries and application programs running above is represented as an image. To upgrade such system, it requires a rebuild of the entire system and entails great power consumptions. Thus those systems are not applicable for wireless sensor networks. Based on the idea of modularization design, the operating system with dynamic upgradeability is constructed by reusable modules. The designs of the module header and handler structure are depicted for dynamic upgradeability support. In addition, the function calls and message communication mechanism used between modules and kernel as well as between modules are also described. Module registration function realizes the loading, unloading and upgrading ability of modules. This ability is certified by the experiments illustrated in this paper.