ProxyMotes: Linux-based TinyOS Platform for Non-TinyOS Sensors and Actuators

We present the concept, design, and implementation of the proxy mote, a Linux-based TinyOS platform able to execute a TinyOS application in a fully functional way. The main use case for the proxy mote is to expose a non-TinyOS (âlegacyâ) sensor/actuator device to TinyOS applications. This is achieved by complementing the proxy mote with a device-specific driver. Multiple proxy motes, each representing its own device, run in parallel on a single PC and communicate among themselves. Thus a distributed, multi-node TinyOS application can use a complex, heterogeneous legacy sensor/actuator installation. At runtime, a proxy mote is a Linux process. Multiple proxy motes form an intra-PC ânetworkâ and exchange Active Message packets over a dedicated infrastructural Linux process that acts as a switch. We include performance results for the proxy mote and proxy network, for typical TinyOS applications. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the approach.