Changes between Version 4 and Version 5 of TutApp

Timestamp:

04/09/12 15:02:42 (14 months ago)

Author:

branko

Comment:

--

TutApp

@@ -1 @@
-Adding an application to OpenWSN
+===Adding an application to OpenWSN===
+
 If you are looking for a quick start on attaching your own sensor to the OpenWSN stack, and sending the information wirelessly to your computer (or any computer on the internet), then this tutorial will show you the basic steps of designing your own OpenWSN application. This tutorial assumes that you have the OpenWSN stack running  on your hardware. If not, please see the other wiki pages for help on installing the basic OpenWSN tools. 
-Introduction
+
+===Introduction===
+
 OpenWSN is a powerful WSN stack, featuring advanced low-level synchronization and communication algorithms, as well as higher-level IPv6 functionality, which permit you to send your data straight to the internet.  The availability of all of these features can make it overwhelming for new users to start developing applications. Most simple WSN applications do not require you to fully understand all the low-level features. Sometimes, users just want to transmit data from sensors or ping motes in the field. This tutorial will show you how easy it actually is to design such a simple application.
 In this tutorial we will design a simple OpenWSN example application called “rex.” The application runs on top of OpenWSN and samples the Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) on your micron roller.  The ADC can be connected to a sensor of your choice. In this case we will be collecting temperature readings every 5 seconds and transmitting them to a central server. If you want to connect your own analog sensor, you can copy this example verbatim. If you want to use a digital sensor (I2C, SPI, etc.) you should be able to modify this application easily with some basic programming knowledge. We will begin by giving you a basic introduction to how this example application fits within the OpenWSN stack, after which we will go into specific steps necessary to port it to your project. 
-Necessary Architecture
+===Necessary Architecture===
 The figure below shows the basic components that comprise our simple example application. In this figure, a mote is running the OpenWSN stack, and is part of a larger OpenWSN network. A sensor is connected to our mote’s microcontroller. Simply speaking, our application runs on top of the CoAP protocol, located in a layer below. CoAP stands for Constrained Applications Protocol. If you’re familiar with HTTP, then CoAP is like a simpler version of HTTP, which permits us to talk to our application over the internet. This abstracts any need to interface through the lower OpenWSN layers, and will permit us to ping the application through other computers on the internet (even web browsers). In our case, the CoAP layer in OpenWSN stack will control how often our application is executed. Don’t worry however, you will not need to edit anything in the CoAP layer. We will only need to make sure that our application interfaces correctly to CoAP, and OpenWSN will take care of everything else. Our application will register with the CoAP components, and request a timer. This timer determines how often we want our application to do something, basically scheduling it. CoAP manages this timer, thus executing some task within our application. The application will then tell the microcontroller’s ADC to sample the sensor once every while (in our case every 5 seconds). The reading is stored in a 2Byte (16bit) variable. This value is then placed into an OpenWSN IPv6 packet. 
 Your job stops here, but if you are interested in what happens next, we can follow the packet through the CoAP component, into the IPv6 layer. If you set up OpenWSN correctly, the packet will eventually end up on a server dedicated to recording the sensor readings. This server will permit you to store and retrieve your sensor readings. It will also provide you with the IPv6 address of your mote, which you can use to ping the mote, and send it further commands from a computer connected to the internet. If you don’t have your own server running, you will be able to use our server to store and retrieve your sensor readings. We also have visualization applications that will plot your readings in real time on our website. 
+
 The following section will give you specific details on how to develop your own application. All of this example code is also available in the OpenWSN repository, under the application called “rex.” We will now cover:
 1.      How to create a simple OpenWSN application.