Middleware Specialization for Memory-Constrained Networked Embedded Systems

General purpose middleware has been shown to be ef-fective off-the-shelf, in meeting diverse functional require-ments for a wide range of distributed systems. However, middleware customization is necessary for many networked embedded systems because of the resource constraints in the networked nodes. In this paper, we demonstrate that reduced middleware footprint can be achieved while main-taining real-time properties of applications running on such systems. We also give evidence that empirical measurement using a representative application is crucial to guide (1) selection of feature subsets from general purpose middle-ware and (2) trade-offs among different dimensions of de-sign metrics including real-time, footprint, and portability. 1