Using LOTOS for FormalisingWireless Sensor Network Applications

Abstract: The number of wireless sensor network (WSN) applications is rapidly increasingand becoming an integral part of sensor nodes. These applications have been widely devel-oped on TinyOS operating system using the nesC programming language. However, due tothe tight integration to physical world, limited node power and resources (CPU and memory)and complexity of combining components into an application, to build such applications isnot a trivial task. In this context, we present an approach for treating with this complexityadopting a formal description technique, namely LOTOS, for formalising the WSN applica-tions‘ behaviour. The formalisation has three main benefits: better understanding on how theapplication actually works, checking of desired properties of the application‘s behaviour, andsimulation facilities. In order to illustrate the proposed approach, we apply it to two nesCtraditional applications, namely BLink and Sense.