ions and models for
developers. companies. Expanding access to this data by more researchers is an
important role for a government agency. The committee believes that NIST also
has a particularly critical role to play in this realm as the agency that
establishes confidence in information systems. NIST is seen as an outside
observer that can provide objective services and analysis. It has an important
role in the standardsdevelopment process, allowing the work done in industry to
be illuminated in a fair and open fashion. As this report has emphasized,
interoperability for EmNets will be very important, and standards will be
needed for such interoperability. Given that many of the standards in this arena
are likely to arrive as de facto rather than de jure standards, NIST can
provide an objective analysis of them and reduce barriers to entry with
reference implementations of the technology itself and/or reference
implementations of conformance testing tools. More specifically, NIST, through
activities such as its Aroma Project,17 which focuses on testing, 17For more
information, see <http://www.nist.gov/aroma/>. Embedded, Everywhere: A
Research Agenda for Networked Systems of Embedded Computers Copyright National
Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 199
measuring, and standardizing pervasive computing technology, should play a
significant role in the two areas as EmNets become ever more widespread.
Recommendation 3. The National Institute of Standards and Technology should
develop and provide reference implementations in order to promote open
standards for interconnectivity architectures. It will be important to promote
open standards in the area and promote system development using commercial
components by making public domain device drivers available. Recommendation 4.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology should develop methodologies
for testing and simulating EmNets in light of the diverse and dynamic conditions
of deployment. Comprehensive simulation models and testing methodologies for
EmNets will be necessary to ensure interoperable, reliable, and predictable
systems. In particular, the development of methodologies for testing
specification and interoperability conformance will be useful. In the process
of these endeavors, NIST can play a key role in data collection and
dissemination of EmNet-related information for use by the larger research and
development community. Recommendations to the National Science Foundation The
National Science Foundation (NSF) has a strong track record in promoting
multidisciplinary research and integrated research and education programs. More
recently, it has been increasing its support for integrated systems
projects—for example, the Information Technology Research (ITR) program. All
three areas—multidisciplinary research, integration of research and education,
and integrated systems approaches— will be of great importance in the support
of EmNet-related research projects, and all of them—in particular,
systems-oriented work—should be aggressively pursued and include
cross-divisional efforts where necessary. Specific recommendations for NSF are
below. Recommendation 5. The National Science Foundation should continue to
expand mechanisms for encouraging systems-oriented, multi-investigator,
collaborative, multidisciplinary research on EmNets. NSF is funding work in
several areas related to EmNets (see Box 6.6). Much of this work continues to
be done by a single principal investigator (and graduate students) operating on
a small budget. As noted in this Embedded, Everywhere: A Research Agenda for
Networked Systems of Embedded Computers Copyright National Academy of Sciences.
All rights reserved. 200 EMBEDDED, EVERYWHERE BOX 6.6 A Sampling of the
National Science Foundation’s EmNet-related programs Scalable Information
Infrastructure and Pervasive Computing NSF is supporting work in scalability,
security, privacy, sensors and sensor networks, and tetherfree networking and
communications in this program. Its goal is to advance the technical
infrastructure to support human-to-human, human-tocomputer, and
computer-to-computer remote communication. Wireless Information Technology and
Networks This program funds research to provide a foundation for designing
highinformation-capacity wireless communication systems for full mobility. Such
design will require synergistic, multidisciplinary research efforts
encompassing a breadth of communications functions from the physical through
application layers. Electronics, Photonics, and Device Technologies This
program funds research in the areas of microand nanoscale devices, components,
and materials, advanced methods of design, modeling, and simulation of such
devices and components, and improved techniques for processing, fabrication,
and manufacturing. report, research on EmNets will require that such single
investigator research be complemented by collaborative experimental research
that brings together researchers from different disciplines to focus on a
common problem. Had this report been written several years ago, it would have
recommended that NSF move toward larger-scale, experimentally driven,
risk-taking research. NSF’s ITR program appears to be doing just that. ITR also
reinforces attention to the social and economic dimensions of information
systems. This program, or others like it, could serve as a useful vehicle for
pursuing some of the topics pinpointed in this report. The key to achieving
successful multidisciplinary research is not just a matter of funding levels. A
flexible process is required that can incorporate perspectives from a broad
range of relevant disciplines. Recommendation 6. The National Science
Foundation should develop programs that support graduate and undergraduate multidisciplinary
educational programs. Embedded, Everywhere: A Research Agenda for Networked
Systems of Embedded Computers Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All
rights reserved. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 201 With respect to education
(see Box 6.1), NSF could take the lead in tackling institutional barriers to
interdisciplinary and broad systemsbased work. NSF has a history of encouraging
interdisciplinary programs and could provide venues for such work to be
explored (as is being done in the ITR programs) as well as foster and fund
joint graduate programs or joint curriculum endeavors. One way to do this would
be to provide incentives to programs that successfully cross disciplinary
boundaries. For example, faculty working on interdisciplinary research often
have difficulty securing institutional support for work deemed outside the
scope of their home department. A program that removed this drawback by
providing funding for such work could stimulate interdisciplinary research and
course material in colleges and universities. Another way would be to expand
the Graduate Fellowship Program to support more interdisciplinary proposals.
Suitable evaluations of proposals would be needed to implement this
recommendation. Recommendations to Other Federal Agencies The National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Energy (DOE)
were two of the earliest innovators and adopters of EmNets. While NASA and DOE
application domains can be quite specialized, two things are clear: The computer
science community would benefit from hearing of and seeing this earlier (and
contemporary) work, and NASA and DOE themselves would benefit from the more
general pursuit of this technology by the broader computer science community.
Both agencies have long histories in systems engineering as well as in computer
science and so could serve as a useful bridge between various communities,
especially regarding the development of EmNets. NASA, for example, has a strong
interest in safety and reliability, and DOE has long been involved in
reliability issues. Their expertise, when applicable, could be shared with
others in related research areas; in addition, the two agencies would benefit
from the generalizations that the broader research community could provide.
More explicit cooperation and communication would be beneficial to everyone and
would greatly advance the field. The agencies with needs for EmNets should
together promote expanded experimental research with a shared, experimental
systems infrastructure. The committee expects that coordination needs could be
supported by the various organizations and groups associated with federal
information technology research and development.18 Open-platform sys18The
National Coordination Office for Information Technology Research and
Development and related groups can facilitate cross-agency coordination, for
example. Embedded, Everywhere: A Research Agenda for Networked Systems of
Embedded Computers Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
202 EMBEDDED, EVERYWHERE tems of various scales, low-power components and the
software drivers for these components, debugging techniques and software,
traffic generators—all can be shared across research programs when applicable,
avoiding inefficient redundancy in those parts of the system where there is
more certainty. The research communities should combine their efforts in
creating enabling components, such as a range of MEMS-based sensors and
actuators that are packaged in such a way as to be easily integrated into
experimental EmNet systems.