PDA Passive distributed assertions for sensor networks

Sensor networks are prone to failures and are hard to debug. This is particularely true for failures caused by incorrect interaction of multiple nodes. We propose a mechanism called passive distributed assertions (PDA) that allows developers to detect such failures and provides hints on possible cau...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:2009 International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks pp. 337 - 348
Main Authors: Romer, Kay, Junyan Ma
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Published: Washington, DC, USA IEEE Computer Society 13.04.2009
IEEE
Series:ACM Conferences
Subjects:
Application software
Applied computing > Computers in other domains > Personal computers and PC applications
Computer systems organization > Architectures > Distributed architectures
Control systems
Debugging
distributed assertions
Hardware > Communication hardware, interfaces and storage
Interference
Networks
Networks > Network types > Mobile networks
Networks > Network types > Wireless access networks
packet sniffing
Permission
Personal digital assistants
Pervasive computing
Programming profession
sensor networks
Sensor systems
Software and its engineering > Software organization and properties > Software system structures > Distributed systems organizing principles
Software engineering
ISBN:1424451086, 9781424451081
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Sensor networks are prone to failures and are hard to debug. This is particularely true for failures caused by incorrect interaction of multiple nodes. We propose a mechanism called passive distributed assertions (PDA) that allows developers to detect such failures and provides hints on possible causes. PDA allow a programmer to formulate assertions over distributed node states using a simple declarative language, causing the sensor network to emit information that can be passively collected (e.g., using packet sniffing) and evaluated to verify that assertions hold. This passive approach allows us to minimize the interference between the application and assertion verification. Further, our system provides mechanisms to deal with inaccurate traces that result from message loss and synchronization inaccuracies. We implement PDA on the BTnode platform and evaluate it using an extensive case study.
ISBN:1424451086
9781424451081
DOI:10.5555/1602165.1602196