Overview of research area
There is a proliferation of embedded systems with increasing
requirements in what concerns real-time and dependability. Devices
such as cellular phones, PDAs, control systems with ``smart'' sensors
and actuators, are examples of those embedded systems. Despite the
technological evolution, in terms of processing power and chip
integration, many of these devices still show limitations regarding
available resources. The need to obtain devices that are small in
size, with low power consumption, and low cost, implies that resources
such as processing power and memory capacity can not grow in an
uncontrolled way. On the other hand, the complexity and the
requirements associated with the applications are ever
increasing. Sometimes, besides strict temporal and dependability
requirements, it is necessary to conciliate them with functional
requirements that imply the utilization of generic use components
(COTS). This coexistence makes real-time and dependability aspects
much more difficult to solve.
Some of the referred devices need to communicate among them, or provide
remote access. That implies their interconnection by communication
networks that in some cases will be wireless, where the bandwidth and
real-time characteristics are, usually, weaker.
The area of interconnected embedded systems, with requirements of
real-time and fault-tolerance, is thus an area of utmost importance
where there is still significant research work to do (both the aspects
related to processing and communications). Of particular interest are
the scenarios corresponding to dynamic environments, not completely
synchronous (quasi-synchronous), where there is a need to adapt the
offered qualities of service.