NOTE: The Nucleus Manual has been updated.
It now has more informative "Getting Started" instructions
What is the purpose of Network Management?
For the developer: to make it easy to expose information about
the functioning of your networked applications.
For example, if you
are developing a routing component, you might want to expose your next
hop and neighbor table so that an administrator can determine the
structure of the routing graph.
For the administrator: to make it easy to gather information
about the functioning of the networked application you are
monitoring.
For example, if you are using an application that contains
multihop routing, you may want to collect data on the structure of the
routing tree to see if there are any problems.
What is Nucleus?
The Nucleus system contains a set of TinyOS components that can be easily
integrated into your own application. Nucleus also contains Java tools
that communicate with these TinyOS components over your serial
connection, radio link, or multihop network.
Why use Nucleus?
You can use Nucleus during the debugging stages to study your
program.
You can leave Nucleus in your program after you have finished
debugging it.
You can use Nucleus to monitor your application in the field and
diagnose problems.
You probably would have written your own custom messages to
collect this data anyway. Why not let Nucleus do the work for you?
How can I get started?
Read the Nucleus Manual [pdf]. This
manual contains a complete set of "Getting Started" instructions.