Design And Implementation Of A GDB-Based Debugger For Wireless Sensor Networks

The wireless sensor network (WSN) is composed of a large number of sensor nodes with the capability of sensing, computing and communicating. It has become one of the hottest research directions of computer science in the nearly decade. However, it is notoriously difficult to debug WSN applications because the WSN nodes are resource-constrained. In order to debug WSN applications, an approach called record and replay is employed, but this technique is inefficient. Some WSN debuggers need additional hardware support, but the hardware is extremely expensive. And some WSN debuggers only provide text-based user interface, imposing developers to debug in an inconvenient style.In this thesis, we present SenSpire debugger, a source-level debugger with GUI. Developer can employ it to debug SenSpire OS-based WSN applications running on simulator with breakpoint and variable watching etc. The debugger offers asynchronous, cancelable interactions, providing better user experience. Also we introduce the mechanism on CSpire support by the debugger. CSpire is an object-oriented, event-driven optimized WSN programming language.This paper discusses the status quo of various WSN debuggers. Analyses the overall structure of GDB and the debugging mechanism of GDB; Introduces the GDB's cross debug technique and GDB/MI, then present the structure of SenSpire debugger from both macroscopical angle and microcosmic angle as well with SenSpire debugger's communication model, which led to a deeply discussion on design for SenSpire debugger. In the end, we provide a concrete implementation of the SenSpire OS-based WSN debugger.