Contact

You can contact the WalT project team by using: walt-contact at univ-grenoble-alpes.fr

As a WalT user, or if you intend to use WalT, you can also subscribe to the list of walt users.

People

Project leaders:

emails: <firstname>.<lastname> at imag.fr

History

WalT started as an attempt to fill the gap between small ad hoc experiments and large scale remote platforms like FIT IoT-lab.

A first prototype was developed as a FabLab project at Grenoble-INP Ensimag.

Development was then funded by Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble INP / UJF, throught AGIR 2013-2014 WalT project.

The following projects are also tightly linked to early development of the WalT platform (co-funding, experiments on WalT):

  • ANR IRIS - Reseaux Tout IP pour le Futur Internet d’Objets Intelligents (2011)
  • FP7 ICT CALIPSO - Connect All IP-based Smart Objects (2011)
  • ANR DataTweet - un service public de communications opportunistes (2013)
  • Persyval SPREAD - Plateforme pédagogique pour l’expérimentation sur des systèmes massivement distribués (2015)

Design goals

A WalT platform can be qualified with the following adjectives.

Versatile

You can ‘plug’ any OS image on WalT nodes. WalT provides what you need to create such an image, or adapt an existing one. Someone will use an IoT-oriented image to drive sensor boards connected on USB. Others will add a java virtual machine on the image and run distributed data management scenarios. The other factor for versatility is that WALT users can completely adapt the platform shape to their needs. Usually, one will use small size deployments for debugging or mobile demos, and a larger one for final experiments.

Lightweight

A WalT platform is based on a standard server machine (can be a mini-PC or a server in the datacenter of the building), standard network switches (preferably PoE-capable, and usually SBC nodes such as RaspberryPis. There is no specific hardware.

Cost-effective

A WalT platform costs less than 100$ per node.

Easy to use, easy to install

Check-out our tutorial, for an overview of the command line tool usage.

WALT also provides easy python scripting features.

The installation procedures are there: server, switches, nodes.

Collaborative

OS images of WalT nodes can be shared on the Docker hub or a private image registry. This helps to collaborate with other users.

The development of WalT is open source. Anyone interested is welcome to contribute! Start here.