Advances in the field of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) over the last decade have led to a
great number of available hardware platforms and operating systems for embedded devices. With
the upcoming research area called Internet of Things (IoT) even more new platforms appeared.
Consequently we are now faced with a vast amount of different embedded systems ranging from
tiny microcontrollers to comparably powerful smartphones. Unfortunately this diversity of
hardware architectures has not yet been fully addressed by any generic software architecture.
Various operating systems for embedded devices are available however each of them cover only
a few architectures. Using Java is not possible on tiny microcontrollers because of the lack of
a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) on these platforms. Similarly the entire field of testing is not
geared towards dealing with the amount of heterogeneity. Testing environments are mostly
homogeneous and it is not possible to evaluate ideas on large-sized networks consisting of
heterogeneous nodes. In this work we present techniques to address the aforementioned
problems. We introduce modern programming paradigms known from desktop computers and transfer
these ideas to embedded systems. Furthermore we built a testing platform consisting of
heterogeneous wireless nodes and sensors. Finally we present novel communication channels that
are able to connect nodes that cannot communicate physically or even real nodes with simulated
ones. Hence this work consists of three parts: While the dominant programming language on
embedded systems is still C we show that more efficient and comfortable results can be
achieved by utilizing modern programming paradigms using C++. We therefore transfer the
established template-based design of well-known libraries such as the Standard Template Library
(STL) or Boost to embedded systems. After thoroughly studying the design of a software
architecture based on C++ we present a successful implementation of our ideas: The Wiselib a
generic algorithms library for distributed heterogeneous embedded systems. To run algorithms in
an appropriate test scenario we built a heterogeneous testbed consisting of different types
of nodes and sensors. To this end we installed self-designed low-cost load sensors based on
strain gauges beneath the floor of a hallway in our institute capable of identifying
passers-by. The load sensors are wired to sensor nodes which in turn allows for the design of
sophisticated algorithms doing in-network data processing. The nodes are additionally connected
to passive infrared sensors (PIRs) and actuator units---light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and
speakers---for interaction with passers-by. The hallway serves as a platform for various
application areas. Examples are target tracking medical testing and interactive games.
Finally we present virtualized communication links. This technique allows to connect nodes
with incompatible radio transceivers or at distant locations. Furthermore it can be used to
let real nodes communicate with virtual nodes in a simulator which allows for novel debugging
mechanisms for distributed embedded systems such as the instantiation of unit tests.
