ABSTRACT
The last two decades have witnessed a remarkable evolution of embedded systems from being assembled from discrete components on printed circuit boards, although, they still are, to systems being assembled from Intellectual Property (IP) components “dropped” onto silicon of the system on a chip. Systems on a chip offer a potential for embedding complex functionalities, and to meet demanding performance requirements of applications such as DSPs, network, and multimedia processors. Another phase in this evolution, already in progress, is the emergence of distributed embedded systems; frequently termed as networked embedded systems, where the word “networked” signifies the importance of the networking infrastructure and communication protocol. A networked embedded system is a collection of spatially and functionally distributed embedded nodes interconnected by means of wireline or wireless communication infrastructure and protocols, interacting with the environment (via a sensor/actuator elements) and each other, and, possibly, a master node performing some control and coordination functions, to coordinate computing and communication in order to achieve certain goal(s). The networked embedded systems appear in a variety of application domains such as, automotive, train, aircraft, office building, and industrial — primarily for monitoring and control, environment monitoring, and, in future, control, as well.
