Programming computers embedded in the physical world

During the next decade, emerging technologies will help populating the physical space with ubiquitous networks of embedded systems (NES). Programming NES requires new abstractions and computing models since the current programming, models are not designed for the scale and volatility encountered in these networks. This paper presents Spatial Programming (SP), a novel programming model for NES. The key idea in SP is to offer network-transparent access to data and services distributed on nodes spread across the physical space. SP programs access network resources using a high level abstraction, termed spatial reference, which addresses the nodes using their spatial and content properties. An underlying system takes care of mapping spatial references onto target nodes in the network. Our preliminary experience in developing SP applications suggests that SP can be a viable solution for distributed computing over NES.