ITR: A Domain-Specific Language for Infopipes

Portland State University, Portland OR

Investigators

Abstract

This project is creating programming language technology and tools to aid the development of performance-sensitive distributed streaming applications, such as real-time sensor networks. The basic idea is to design programming abstractions that are specific to the domain of streaming applications, and to develop checking and compilation tools for mapping them to the underlying operating system mechanisms and network protocols. The approach is based on the "Infopipe" programming model, a novel approach to building streaming applications, currently under development by the PIs. Experiments with an early prototype have shown Infopipes to be very promising. However, language tools for simplifying the programming task, checking correctness properties and ensuring adequate performance of complex "Infopipelines" do not currently exist. This proposal outlines the research involved in creating these tools and presents some novel ideas on the language primitives and tools for Infopipes, the kinds of Infopipe properties that can be automatically checked, and the conceptual foundation that enables this checking to be rigorous.