TinyCO – A Middleware Model for Heterogeneous Nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) contain multiple nodes of the same configuration and type. The biggest challenge nowadays is to communicate with heterogeneous nodes of different WSNs. To communicate with distinct networks, an application requires generic middleware. This middleware should be able to translate the requests for contrary WSNs. Most of the wireless nodes use the TinyOS or Contiki operating systems. These operating systems vary in their architecture, configuration and programming model. An application cannot communicate with heterogeneous networks because of their divergent nature. In this paper, we design and implement TinyCO (a generic middleware model for WSNs), which overcomes these challenges. TinyCO is a general-purpose serviceoriented middleware model. This middleware model can identify the heterogeneous networks based on TinyOS and Contiki. It allows applications to communicate with these networks using a generic request. This middleware interprets the given input into signatures of the underlying networks. This proposed middleware is implemented in Java and tested on TelosB motes. Keywords—wireless sensor networks; middleware; heterogeneous network; interoperability; service-oriented architecture