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Introduction to TinyOS
    
 
Network Embedded Systems Technology(NEST) refers to the emerging new technology of wireless sensor networks and deeply embedded systems. These systems usually consist of small low-cost nodes that interact with the environment through sensors, actuators and RF communication technology. These nodes are often referred to as motes or ‘Smart Dust’.

This technology promises to have wide-ranging applications in fields as diverse as transportation, health care, environmental studies and security systems. We came across an interesting application of these wireless sensor networks by field biologists at Berkeley for monitoring the activities of the Leach’s Storm Petrel (a ‘shy’ sea bird ). See http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2002/08/05_snsor.html for the complete article.

We have been working on the basic mote kit manufactured by Crossbow Technology, Inc., which uses TinyOS as the embedded software platform for the motes. TinyOS is an open-source software platform suited for these applications that require concurrency intensive operations while constrained by minimal hardware resources.