Achieving configurable small embedded system with Internet connectivity

Abstract

Microcontrollers are widely used in distributed embedded systems for automation and industrial process control, medical equipments, building automation and others. Currently many microcontrollers have enough processing power for networked applications, thus becoming possible its use in Local Area Networks as well as making them accessible through the Internet. The con-figuration and loading of user programs during the development of distributed applications becomes cumbersome due to the large number of nodes and to their locations. In this paper we discuss and present some solutions for the reconfiguration and loading of programs in embedded systems with Ethernet and TCP/IP connectivity. With this loader it is possible to program a specific node, a group of nodes or all the system nodes at the same time. It is also possible to trigger selectively the execution of user programs in the nodes. At the present, the loader operates for the PIC 16F87x and 18Fxx8 series.