Resource Aware Programming in the Pixie OS

This paper presents Pixie, a new sensor node operating system designed to support the needs of data-intensive applications. These applications, which include high-resolution monitoring of acoustic, seismic, acceleration, and other signals, involve high data rates and extensive in-network processing. Given the fundamentally resource-limited nature of sensor networks, a pressing concern for such applications is their ability to receive feedback on, and adapt their behavior to, fluctuations in both resource availability and load. The Pixie OS is based on a dataflow programming model based on the concept of resource tickets, a core abstraction for representing resource availability and reservation.