nesc language introduction. nesC is an extension to C [2] designed to embody the structuring concepts and execution model of
TinyOS [1]. TinyOS is an event-driven operating system designed for sensor network nodes that
have very limited resources (e.g., 8K bytes of program memory, 512 bytes of RAM). TinyOS has
been reimplemented in nesC. This manual describes v1.1 of nesC, changes from v1.0 are summarised
in Section 3.
Before I can present design concepts or tactical wireless communications and network
challenges, I feel the need to mention the challenges of writing for a field where some
information is not available for public domain and cannot be included in this book’s context.
Another challenge is the use of military jargon and the extensive number of abbreviations
(and abbreviations of abbreviations!) in the field. Engineering books are naturally dry, and I
have attempted to make it light by presenting the concepts in layman’s terms before diving
into the technical details. I am structuring this book in such a way as to make it useful for
a specialized graduate course in tactical communications and networking, or as a reference
book in the field.
