Thoughts on an Open TinyOS Alliance David Culler NEST Retreat 6/4/04

TinyOS Alliance Situation today de facto research platform for sensor nets 500+ mote groups 70 downloads/day (20k, 200k views) Lots of HW platforms –We know some of them Lot of student development Small core “staff” Real international community Monthly minor (RPM) release –One month behind sourceforge availability Beta process but all informal

6/4/04TinyOS Alliance Why build a more formal Alliance? Create a organizational structure to support the advance of an open source software infrastructure for wireless embedded devices

6/4/04TinyOS Alliance Why build a more formal Alliance? Create a organizational structure to support the advance of an open source software infrastructure for wireless embedded devices –Sufficiently stable platform for application deployment and commercial development »Release process, prioritization, roadmap »Innovation is usage –Rapid (transparent) uptake of new technology »Predictable progress –Code base from which research efforts can branch off, prototype, and innovate –Process for folding back in successful innovations –Enable a rich set of potential hardware platforms »innovation in devices –Suite of tools for development, testing, benchmarking, etc. –Proactive Clearing House

6/4/04TinyOS Alliance Why build a more formal Alliance? Create a organizational structure to support the advance of an open source software infrastructure for wireless embedded devices Enable Quality Community Process –Effective communication and sharing of best practices –Build consensus around analysis of running code »Consolidate in areas of strength »Resolution –Encourage development in weak areas –Seed work in substantially new areas Maximize impact

6/4/04TinyOS Alliance What does it take to do that? People –Not just graduate students $ Meetings Access to emerging technology Level playing field Open exchange As broad participation as possible

6/4/04TinyOS Alliance Typical structure Rings of membership –Platinum, gold, silver, pewter, … The more you pay the more/earlier access you have The more influence you can assert

6/4/04TinyOS Alliance A different tack Open means all members have access to everything More important to maximize participation than to maximize $s. Members join because the success of the effort brings value to themselves BSD. Period. Applns devices system/network

6/4/04TinyOS Alliance Structure Alliance Industrial and Academic Members –Spectrum of membership classes based on depth of involvement –Not strictly $ Alliance Advisory Board –Representatives of key members providing oversight, prioritization, policy Alliance Director –Execute alliance operations and manage staff group Alliance Staff Group (at UCB) –Supported by members and other grants TinyOS Core Technical Group –Decision making apparatus for technical development of the platform –Oversee various technical working groups –Resolve technical matters TinyOS Committer Group –Members with rights to commit updates to the code base

6/4/04TinyOS Alliance Membership Primary Members –Industrial and academic institutions that have made a substantial commitment to the alliance. –May take the form of financial support, software development, hardware development, contribution of technology, ip, or other in-kind –Determined by board with input from primary members Members –Industrial and academic institutions that have agreed to be members of the alliance »Appear on the web site as members »Typically involved in TinyOS development or usage –Sliding scale membership fee based on the value to the member ands its ability to pay »Encourage small companies and start ups Participants –General user and developer community

6/4/04TinyOS Alliance What’s on our plate? Power Management System Management Time Coordination Sensor-Net Protocol Security Discovery Carrier Sense Physical Architecture TransmitReceive Data Link Media AccessTimestampingCodingACKAssembly Sensor-Net Application Address-Free ProtocolsName-Based Protocols PredicatesSuppressionEstimationNamingGraphs In-Network Storage Caching Custody TransferTriggers Energy StorageSensing

6/4/04TinyOS Alliance Platefull Release process, documentation Collection of meaningful phy and mac layers Clean hardware abstraction Local subsystems –Flash, power mgmt, watchdog Universal, expressive “link” abstraction Canonical Network Layer Protocols –Dissemination, collection, nbrhoods, pt-pt Canonical Services Set of APIs Higher-level Dial tone(s) Programming models Canonical external interfaces –Xml, RMI, … Toolchains Application harnesses

6/4/04TinyOS Alliance Your thoughts