Tinyhive: Dynamic Virtual Machine For Sensor Networks

Abstract

Virtual machines are becoming a popular area of research. One of the most important benefits from virtual machine is flexibility for redeployment. Though, this flexibility comes at a cost of slightly slow code. So far researchers have tried to create a static virtual machine. But they all have a common problem, dynamicity. This project creates a dynamic virtual machine called TinyHive. It enables the user to define his instruction and its handler. The user can write the handler according to the needs of his application. The handler is written in a native code executed by the underlying micro-controller. This makes the virtual machine very dynamic. Through the use of test cases, we show that TinyHive can enable a virtual application to achieve which was not possible in traditional virtual machines. The user can define his instruction and its handler extending the scope of a virtual machine application. The study also shows that it is much cheaper power wise to write a handler in program memory than other systems like deluge. Thus TinyHive virtual machine can be used to create an application which is more dynamic and flexible than other virtual applications.