As machine-to-machine networks become larger and more pervasive, manual configuration and discovery of resources will become intractable. It is in this context that we propose the RDL, a Resource Description Language that represents a uniform way of describing embedded resources, allowing them to be shared and enabling a new class of resource-aware applications. The RDL can describe a wide range of resources, characterizing individual nodes or entire networks. It can contribute to overcome performance issues in dense networks or mobility-driven problems in highly dynamic machine-to-machine topologies by providing the means for self-adaptability and manageability, as well as opportunistic resource sharing in context-aware embedded applications. The main goal for the RDL is to define a reusable and extensible resource description specification, which can only be reached if the resources are described in a standardized format. To illustrate the feasibility of our approach, we have also developed a Java implementation of the RDL framework, as well as a TinyOS implementation targeting resource constrained platforms. Furthermore, we have developed Modulus, a modular middleware for the development of resource-aware distributed applications.

© 2012 André C. Santos et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.