A Java Compatible Virtual Machine as an Embedded Middleware for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Programming Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) involves learning very different programming paradigms from those commonly used in the development of computer systems. Due to the lack of advantages obtained from the last generation high level programming languages, the growth of WSNs is significantly impeded. Programming WSN nodes requires knowledge of specific hardware which depends on the WSN architecture. A method to provide the benefits of high level languages is to use a hardware abstraction layer. MiniMV is a virtual machine designed to be used in embedded systems and it is capable of executing Java class files (containing a subset java bytecode instructions) created by a Java standard compiler. This work focuses on the implementation of MiniMV in the Tmote Sky platform using the C language and the TinyOS hardware functions as native methods and how MiniMV has been ported to other platform with minimal changes such as LiSANDRA developed by UABC-Tij research group.