NeTS-NOSS: Macroprogramming Robust Distributed Applications in Sensor Networks

该项目的重点是理解必要的抽象和机制，以开发一个宏编程系统，称为Kairos，它使开发人员能够指定传感器网络中的分布式计算的全局行为。Kairos将这个单一的集中式程序转换为在各个节点上执行的程序，然后通过额外的运行时支持自动实例化和执行这些程序。Kairos可以导致健壮代码的快速周转，因为程序员和系统设计师通常能够清楚地描述（以及关于分布式计算的正确性的推理）集中式版本，但往往难以实施（或）一个节点的正确性，Kairos将传感器网络抽象为节点的集合，这些节点都可以是在一个程序中同时执行任务。向程序员提供了三种构造：在节点上阅读和写入变量、遍历节点的单跳邻居以及命名和寻址任意节点。Kairos利用了传感器网络中大多数分布式计算将依赖于共享节点状态的最终一致性的观察结果，以实现鲁棒性和能源效率。Kairos将推进传感器网络子系统和应用的可编程性。在Kairos框架中实现相当复杂的分布式算法（如定位和对象跟踪）是可能的，而不会显着降低效率。我们打算开发一个原型Kairos系统，并希望使用它在CENS应用程序以及教育活动。

This project is focused on understanding the abstractions and mechanisms necessary to develop a macroprogramming system, called Kairos, which enables a developer to specify the global behavior of a distributed computation in sensor networks. Kairos translates this single centralized program into programs that execute on individual nodes, then instantiates and executes these programs automatically with additional runtime support. Kairos can result in rapid turn-around of robust code, since programmers and systems designers are often able to clearly describe (and reason about the correctness of) a centralized version of a distributed computation, but often find it difficult to implement (or understand the correctness of) a node-local program that realizes the same desired global behavior.Kairos presents an abstraction of a sensor network as a collection of nodes that can all be tasked together simultaneously within a single program. The programmer is presented with three constructs: reading and writing variables at nodes, iterating through the one-hop neighbors of a node, and naming and addressing arbitrary nodes. Kairos leverages the observation that most distributed computations in sensor networks will rely on eventual consistency of shared node state both for robustness and for energy efficiency. Kairos will advance the programmability of sensor networking subsystems and applications. It is possible to implement fairly sophisticated distributed algorithms (like localization and object tracking) in the Kairos framework without significant loss of efficiency. We intend to develop a prototype Kairos system and hope to use it in CENS applications as well as educational activities.