Pratham: A Low-Cost Wireless Node with Programmable Radio Range and Over-the-Air Programming Capability for Resource-Constrained Applications

We present Pratham, an embedded platform with programmable wireless communication range and Over-The-Air programming capability. It is a new design for wireless node hardware aimed at creating a class of heterogeneous sensor networks which bridge the gap between ultra-low power short range and high power long range wireless sensor nodes, while maintaining ease of use and robustness of software. The wireless link created by Pratham nodes is characterised for throughput, quality and power profiles for elementary operations. The supported Over-The-Air programming process is modelled as a Colored Petri Net to analyse its performance. Typical network lifetimes are discussed and the effect of post-deployment remote programming on the life of the node is calculated.