Project Overview
Project
Abstract LiteOS is an open source, interactive, UNIX-like operating system designed for
wireless sensor networks. With the tools that come with LiteOS, you can operate one or more wireless sensor networks in a Unix-like manner, transferring data, installing programs, retrieving results, or configuring sensors. You can also develop programs for nodes, and wirelessly distribute such programs to sensor nodes.
The LiteOS 2.0 is the latest version of LiteOS. It runs on the following platforms: Windows XP/Vista/7, MicaZ as target board, and MIB510/MIB520 as programming boards. Unlike 1.0, LiteOS 2.0 is closely integrated with AVR Studio 5.0. This brings multiple advantages, such as IDE editing, debugging, and built-in JTAG support.
Funding acknowledgement: The LiteOS Project is currently supported by NSF grant CNS-0953238.
Disclaimer (05/21/2015): The LiteOS is an open source operating system for embedded systems and sensor networks, whose development started in 2007. Recently we read in the news that the Telecom company Huawei developed an embedded operating system also named as LiteOS. We are not sure whether the same name indicates they are based on our design or not, and whether they reused our code.
Key Features and Updates
Updates May 2014 (SVN only)* Research source code for MASCOTS paper on sensor node replay
* LIPS source code for link quality prediction
* Kernel updates with r-kernel integration
Key Features in Version 2.0
* Integrated compilation of user applications and the kernel.
* Closely integrated with AVR Studio 5.0.
* Improved kernel robustness.
* JTAG Support.
* Event logging switch.
* Default support for AVRdude.
Key Features in Version 1.0
* Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Linux Support
* Support for both MicaZ nodes and IRIS nodes
* Plug-and-play routing stack
* Extremely lightweight event logging
* Unix like commands to operate the entire sensor network.
* Multi-threading kernel.
* Write applications in C.
* Native wireless reprogramming.
* Built-in hierarchical file system.
* Extensive development libraries.
* Java tools to display and visualize data.
* Online debugging support, including variable watches and unlimited number of
breakpoints.
* Elastic dynamic memory that has almost zero overhead.
* Snapshot a thread state or restore it to a prevoius state.
* Installer for quickly deploying LiteOS operating system.
* Documentation to quickly get started with operating and programming .
Software Downloads
Installation Steps for Windows:First, download AVR Studio 7.0 from the following website (free):
Atmel AVR Studio 7.0
Second, download and install AVR Cygwin. When installing, make sure that the Make, Python, and GCC are selected.
Finally, download and install LiteOS from its link:
LiteOS 2.0 download
Or you can download the latest version from the SVN repository hosted by Google Code.
Source Code SVN Access (Google Code Page)
Documentation
LiteOS Documentation
LiteOS User's Guide: the quick start guide contains illustrated installation and usage examples for LiteOS.
Download: User's guide (Version 2.1) PDF format
LiteOS Kernel Guide: this guide provides detailed documentation of the kernel code of LiteOS.
Download: PDF format (25Mb)
Release Notes: the release notes document every update details. Aailable in txt format here.
Application notes: application notes cover various aspects of development in LiteOS, and serve as starting points to develop more complicated applications.
LiteOS Application Note AN-101: Mote-PC communication and data display (in pdf format)
LiteOS Application Note AN-102: Radio API Programming (in pdf format)
LiteOS Application Note AN-103: LiteOS Event Logging (in pdf format)
Published Papers