Say “Hello” to Mote Runner, IBM’s wireless sensor network platform for a smarter planet.

In a nutshell, Mote Runner is a run-time environment for mote-class wireless sensor networks (WSN). It consists of an on-mote run-time platform based on a virtual machine introducing its own byte-code language, tools (e.g., converter, assembler) to develop mote applications in Java and C# including plug-in integration with Eclipse (for Java) and Visual Studio (for C#), a mote and network simulation environment to facilitate application development, and a Web-based deployment and monitoring framework.

The core requirements to reap the promised benefits of a fully business-process-integrated infrastructure for deploying large numbers of sensors and actuators are security and end-to-end optimizations for such systems. This requires a well-designed ecosystem comprising inexpensive devices, as well as simple and bullet-proof device programmability for easy integration and use by specialists of the application domain, not of the device technology.

The IBM Mote Runner system addresses these challenges with a high-performance, low-footprint, standards-based software middleware platform comprising a hardware-agnostic and language-independent virtual machine together with development and integration tooling to easily create and manage applications for open sensor and actuator networks.

One-way, dedicated data-gathering IT networks, such as those underlying UPS’ delivery tracking system, have shown the commercial value of real-time control of real-world components. Building on this, more generalized applications for wireless sensor networks (WSN) are becoming increasingly apparent and significant in size and real-world relevance. Conceptually, the broadest application categories for WSNs provide access and immediate reactions to environmental information, as well as a flexible communication and intelligence-gathering infrastructure to serve, for example, next-generation business applications that directly tap into the ever greater number of digitally-enabled sensors and actuators that provide input to the operation.

Yet, to unlock this potential, two first-order problem categories must be addressed. The first one is the problem of cost: WSNs consist of numerous small computing elements that have to be cost-optimized. In this realm, cost takes the form of up-front investments into hardware and software, plus subsequent expenses such as maintenance. The former directly translates into hardware costs and, therefore, calls for very efficient software running on the least expensive and cost-effective off-the-shelf chips. The latter translates into design requirements for minimum hardware interaction after mote deployment (e.g., for manual battery change or system reconfiguration). The second problem category is technological: A WSN run-time environment must not only be able to cope with the broad range of technical challenges imposed on WSNs, it must also be accessible beyond the low-level functionality of individual WSN nodes. In this context, “accessible” means basically three things. First, it must be possible to dynamically configure and reconfigure the WSN in the field to deal with situations such as interrupted communication or WSN node failures. Second, the WSN has to be secured to be considered a trusted source of information and a reliable performer of actions in response. Third, the WSN must be well-integrated within the larger infrastructure with which it cooperates. It must be generally programmable by domain specialists to solve domain-specific problems without deep knowledge of WSN technology and components. Only then will real-world aware systems become possible—while still being easy to program and deploy—that link the physical world of sensors and actuators with business processes and applications. This will improve the responsiveness of business transactions, enable end-to-end process security, and reduce costs by reaching into WSNs for data collection, preprocessing, and autonomic feedback.

The IBM Mote Runner run-time environment for WSNs, currently under development at IBM Research - Zurich, tackles these challenges in a holistic manner. Thus, at its core, Mote Runner provides a high-level, language-friendly, resource-efficient and high-performance virtual machine that shields portable applications from hardware specifics. It allows programmers to use object-oriented programming languages and development environments such as C# and Java to develop portable WSN applications that may be dynamically distributed, loaded, updated, and deleted even after the WSN hardware has been deployed. All operations and communications can be cryptographically protected to establish a trusted execution environment. Furthermore, Mote Runner WSN applications provide seamless integration with state-of-the-art backend infrastructures by means of an event-driven process engine that effectively bridges the gap to large-scale business and scientific applications without requiring deep technology skills. Finally, IBM Mote Runner is designed to run on very small, standard, embedded controllers, including low-power 8-bit processors, thereby reducing both initial investments as well as post-deployment and maintenance costs.