Supporting wireless application development via virtual execution

We introduce our “holistic” platform for building wireless ad hoc sensor networks and focus on its most representative and essential virtualization component: VUE² (the Virtual Underlay Emulation Engine). Its role is to provide a vehicle for authoritative emulation of complete networked applications before physically deploying the wireless nodes. The goal is to be able to verify those applications exhaustively before programming the hardware, such that no further (field) tests are necessary. We explain how VUE² achieves this goal owing to several facilitating factors, most notably the powerful programming paradigm adopted in our platform. As implied by the holistic nature of the discussed system, our presentation touches upon operating systems, simulation, network protocols, real-time systems, and programming methodology.