Specifying WSN Applications through Agents Based on Events and States

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are emerging as powerful platforms for distributed embedded computing supporting a variety of high-impact applications such as disaster/crime prevention and military applications, environmental applications, health applications, and smart spaces. Programming WSNs is a complex task as system level code and application level code are often intertwined. Several programming paradigms have been to date proposed which provide programming abstractions and programming support for the development of WSN applications. In this paper we propose a specification language centered on the concept of lightweight agent based on events and states which distinctively integrates the advantages of three important paradigms and models for WSN programming: agent- based, event-driven and state-based programming. The proposed language is exemplified through a specification of the well-known EnviroTrack application.