Networked Embedded System Applications Design Driven by an Middleware Environment

The extreme heterogeneity of networked embedded platforms makes both design and reuse of applications really hard. These facts decrease portability. A middleware is the software layer that allows to abstract the actual characteristics of each embedded platform. Using a middleware decreases the difficulty in designing applications, but programming for different middlewares is still a barrier to portability. This paper presents a design methodology based on an abstract middleware environment that allows to abstract even the services provided. This is gained by allowing the designer to smoothly move across different design paradigms. As a proof, the paper shows how to mix and exchange applications between tuple-space and message-oriented based middleware environments.