Analysis, instrumentation, and visualization of embedded network systems : A testbed-based approach.

Embedded network systems are gaining adoption and emerging as the next step in the shift toward ubiquitous computing.

Deployments range in scale from tens of devices to over a thousand; applications can be massively parallel and distributed, executing over unreliable links and devices.

The programming model used to develop these systems is fundamentally different than the models provided by traditional imperative programming languages; many existing software engineering tools and techniques cannot be applied.

In particular, the lack of tools and techniques to analyze, instrument, and visualize these systems make their development more difficult.

We present a framework to address these difficulties in the context of the nesC development platform.

The three components of this framework are: (1) a real-time interactive, open platform for analyzing program and network behavior; (2) a source code analysis and instrumentation framework to support a range of static analysis and instrumentation activities; and (3) a control-flow visualization framework for resource-constrained embedded network devices.