Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Medium access control”

This thesis proposes and studies a Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol for networks of tags deployed over an industrial machine using THz communications. Despite the great advantages of these frequencies, there are drawbacks that cannot be ignored, such as propagation delays that, even at small distances, are of the same order of magnitude as packet transmission times. For this reason, the mathematical models developed for Contention-Free and Contention-Based protocols take into account the propagation delay. The main focus of this thesis is on the CSMA/CA protocol, which introduces channel sensing to reduce collisions and increase performance. The performance of the protocol are compared with two benchmarks, based on Polling and Aloha, considering an industrial machine scenario and accounting for physical and MAC layers features.

Cognitive radio (CR) is seen as one of the enabling technologies for realizing a new regulatory spectrum management paradigm, viz. opportunistic spectrum sharing (OSS). In the OSS paradigm, unlicensed users (a.k.a. secondary users) opportunistically operate in fallow licensed spectrum on a non-interference basis to licensed users (a.k.a. incumbent or primary users). Incumbent users have absolute priority in licensed bands, and secondary users must vacate the channel where incumbent user signals are detected. A CR network is composed of secondary users equipped with CRs and it can coexist with incumbent users in licensed bands under the OSS paradigm. The coexistence between incumbent users and secondary users is referred to as incumbent coexistence, and the coexistence between CR networks of the same type is referred to as self-coexistence. In this dissertation, we address three coexistence-related problems at the medium access control (MAC) layer in CR networks: (1) the rendezvous (control channel) establishment problem, (2) the channel assignment problem in an ad hoc CR network, and (3) the spectrum sharing problem between infrastructure-based CR networks, i.e., the 802.22 wireless regional area networks (WRANs). Existing MAC layer protocols in conventional wireless networks fail to adequately address the key issues concerning incumbent and self coexistence that emerge in CR networks. To solve the rendezvous establishment problem, we present a systematic approach, based on quorum systems, for designing channel hopping protocols that ensure a pair of CRs to "rendezvous" within an upper-bounded time over a common channel that is free of incumbent user signals. In a single radio interface, ad hoc CR network, we propose a distributed channel assignment scheme that assigns channels at the granularity of "segments" for minimizing the channel switching overhead. By taking into account the coexistence requirements, we propose an inter-network spectrum sharing protocol that enables the sharing of vacant TV white space among coexisting WRANs. Our analytical and simulation results show that these proposed schemes can effectively address the aforementioned MAC layer coexistence problems in CR networks.
Ph. D.

Les réseaux dédiés pour l’Internet des Objets sont apparus avec la promesse de connecter des milliers de nœuds, voire plus, à une seule station de base dans une topologie en étoile. Cette nouvelle logique représente un changement fondamental dans la façon de penser les réseaux, après des décennies pendant lesquelles les travaux de recherche se sont focalisés sur les réseaux multi-sauts. Les réseaux pour l’Internet des Objets se caractérisent par la longue portée des transmissions, la vaste couverture géographique, une faible consommation d’énergie et un bas coût de mise en place. Cela a rendu nécessaire des adaptations à tous les niveaux protocolaires afin de satisfaire les besoins de ces réseaux. Plusieurs acteurs sont en concurrence sur le marché de l’Internet des Objets, essayant chacun d’établir la solution la plus efficiente. Ces acteurs se sont concentrés sur la modification de la couche physique, soit au niveau de la partie matérielle, soit par la proposition de nouvelles techniques de modulation. Toutefois, en ce qui concerne la solution de contrôle d’accès au canal (connue sous le nom de couche MAC), toutes les solutions proposées par ces acteurs se fondent sur des approches classiques, tel que Aloha et CSMA. L'objectif de cette thèse est de proposer une solution MAC dynamique pour les réseaux dédiés à l’Internet des Objets. La solution proposée a la capacité de s'adapter aux conditions du réseau. Cette solution est basée sur un algorithme d'apprentissage automatique, qui apprend de l'historique du réseau afin d'établir la relation entre les conditions du réseau, les paramètres de la couche MAC et les performances du réseau en termes de fiabilité et de consommation d'énergie. La solution possède également l'originalité de faire coexister des nœuds utilisant de différentes configurations MAC au sein du même réseau. Les résultats de simulations ont montré qu'une solution MAC basée sur l'apprentissage automatique pourrait tirer profit des avantages des différents protocoles MAC classiques. Les résultats montrent aussi qu'une solution MAC cognitive offre toujours le meilleur compromis entre fiabilité et consommation d'énergie, tout en prenant en compte l'équité entre les nœuds du réseau. La solution MAC cognitive testée pour des réseaux à haute densité a prouvé des bonnes propriétés de passage à l’échelle par rapport aux protocoles MACs classiques, ce qui constitue un autre atout important de notre solution
Dedicated networks for the Internet of Things appeared with the promise of connecting thousands of nodes, or even more, to a single base station in a star topology. This new logic represents a fundamental change in the way of thinking about networks, after decades during which research work mainly focused on multi-hop networks. Internet of Things networks are characterized by long transmission range, wide geographic coverage, low energy consumption and low set-up costs. This made it necessary to adapt the protocols at different architectural layers in order to meet the needs of these networks. Several players compete in the Internet of Things market, each trying to establish the most efficient solution. These players are mostly focused on modifying the physical layer, on the hardware part or through proposing new modulations. However, with regard to the channel access control solution (known as the MAC protocol), all the solutions proposed by these players are based on classic approaches such as Aloha and CSMA. The objective of this thesis is to propose a dynamic MAC solution for networks dedicated to the Internet of Things. The proposed solution has the ability to adapt to network conditions. This solution is based on a machine learning algorithm that learns from network history in order to establish the relationship between network conditions, MAC layer parameters and network performance in terms of reliability and energy consumption. The solution also has the originality of making possible the coexistence of nodes using different MAC configurations within the same network. The results of simulations have shown that a MAC solution based on machine learning could take advantage of the good properties of different conventional MAC protocols. The results also show that a cognitive MAC solution always offers the best compromise between reliability and energy consumption, while taking into account the fairness between the nodes of the network. The cognitive MAC solution tested for high density networks has proven better scalability compared to conventional MAC protocols, which is another important advantage of our solution

In computer networks, congestion is a condition in which one or more egressinterfaces are offered more packets than are forwarded at any given instant [1]. In wireless sensor networks, congestion can cause a number of problems including packet loss, lower throughput and poor energy efficiency. These problems can potentially result in a reduced deployment lifetime and underperforming applications. Moreover, idle radio listening is a major source of energy consumption therefore low-power wireless devices must keep their radio transceivers off to maximise their battery lifetime. In order to minimise energy consumption and thus maximise the lifetime of wireless sensor networks, the research community has made significant efforts towards power saving medium access control protocols with Radio Duty Cycling. However, careful study of previous work reveals that radio duty cycle schemes are often neglected during the design and evaluation of congestion control algorithms. This thesis argues that the presence (or lack) of radio duty cycle can drastically influence the performance of congestion control mechanisms. To investigate if previous findings regarding congestion control are still applicable in IPv6 over low power wireless personal area and duty cycling networks; some of the most commonly used congestion detection algorithms are evaluated through simulations. The research aims to develop duty cycle aware congestion control schemes for IPv6 over low power wireless personal area networks. The proposed schemes must be able to maximise the networks goodput, while minimising packet loss, energy consumption and packet delay. Two congestion control schemes, namely DCCC6 (Duty Cycle-Aware Congestion Control for 6LoWPAN Networks) and CADC (Congestion Aware Duty Cycle MAC) are proposed to realise this claim. DCCC6 performs congestion detection based on a dynamic buffer. When congestion occurs, parent nodes will inform the nodes contributing to congestion and rates will be readjusted based on a new rate adaptation scheme aiming for local fairness. The child notification procedure is decided by DCCC6 and will be different when the network is duty cycling. When the network is duty cycling the child notification will be made through unicast frames. On the contrary broadcast frames will be used for congestion notification when the network is not duty cycling. Simulation and test-bed experiments have shown that DCCC6 achieved higher goodput and lower packet loss than previous works. Moreover, simulations show that DCCC6 maintained low energy consumption, with average delay times while it achieved a high degree of fairness. CADC, uses a new mechanism for duty cycle adaptation that reacts quickly to changing traffic loads and patterns. CADC is the first dynamic duty cycle pro- tocol implemented in Contiki Operating system (OS) as well as one of the first schemes designed based on the arbitrary traffic characteristics of IPv6 wireless sensor networks. Furthermore, CADC is designed as a stand alone medium access control scheme and thus it can easily be transfered to any wireless sensor network architecture. Additionally, CADC does not require any time synchronisation algorithms to operate at the nodes and does not use any additional packets for the exchange of information between the nodes (For example no overhead). In this research, 10000 simulation experiments and 700 test-bed experiments have been conducted for the evaluation of CADC. These experiments demonstrate that CADC can successfully adapt its cycle based on traffic patterns in every traffic scenario. Moreover, CADC consistently achieved the lowest energy consumption, very low packet delay times and packet loss, while its goodput performance was better than other dynamic duty cycle protocols and similar to the highest goodput observed among static duty cycle configurations.

Thesis (M.Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2001.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-116).
by Himal P. Karmacharya.
M.Eng.

A variety of cooperative medium access control (MAC) schemes are designed for the sake of improving the achievable transmit rate and for reducing the transmit energy dissipation of cooperative communication systems relying on realistic greedy - rather than altruistic - relay nodes (RNs). Based on the system’s objective functions (OF), novel distributed relay selection schemes are developed for selecting the best relay node (RN) set. In order to investigate the effect of the proposed MAC schemes on the performance of the cooperative communication systems considered, the system’s stability is analysed with the aid of queueing theory. Specifically, we first consider a cooperative spectrum leasing system (CSLS) supporting a licensed source node (SN) and a licensed destination node (DN) as well as multiple unlicensed greedy RNs, which require rewards for providing cooperative transmission assistance. A ’win-win’ (WW) cooperative framework (WWCF) is formulated for sake of improving the achievable transmit rate and for simulanteously minimizing the energy dissipation of the co- operative spectrum leasing system considered. Based on the proposed WWCF, the licensed SN intends to lease part of its spectrum to the unlicensed RNs in exchange for cooperative support, leading to an improved transmit rate, while simultaneously reducing the transmit power. The unlicensed RNs also have an incentive to provide cooperative transmission assistance for the SN, since in exchange for relaying assistance they are allowed to access the licensed spectrum for transmitting their own data, and even to maintain their own target Quality of Service (QoS). Furthermore, a distributed WW cooperative MAC protocol is developed for implementing the proposed WWCF by designing a specific signalling procedure and the format of both the data frame control messages as well as a distributed relay selection scheme. More explicitly, a novel backoff algorithm is designed for distributively selecting the best RN in order to optimize the system’s OF formulated by our WWCF. Our simulation results demonstrated that both substantial rate improvements and considerable energy savings are achieved by implementing the proposed distributed WW cooperative MAC protocol. However, encountering a low service rate at the MAC layer may excessively increase the length of queue in the buffer storing the incoming packet. Hence, the queueing system may become unstable due to the low service rate limited by an inferior MAC protocol design. Hence we conceived a queueing model for our cooperative spectrum leasing system relying on the proposed distributed WW cooperative MAC protocol. In order to simplify the stability analysis, some idealized simplifying assumptions are invoked and a non-Markovian analysis method is used for investigating the transmission probability of each node and for deriving the average departure rates at both the SN and the RNs operating under the control of the proposed distributed WW cooperative MAC protocol. Our simulation results confirmed that an increased stable throughput is provided by the proposed distributed WW cooperative MAC protocol for both the SN and RNs compared to the benchmark schemes. As an improved extension of the proposed WWCF, a WW reciprocal-selection-based framework (WWRSF) is formulated for a cooperative spectrum leasing system hosting multiple licensed transmission pairs and multiple unlicensed transmission pairs. The SN of a licensed pair of nodes is referred as the primary transmitter (PT), while the SN of an unlicensed transmission pair is termed as the secondary transmitter (ST). Based on the proposed WWRSF, the PT intends to lease its spectral resources to an appropriate secondary transmitter (ST) in exchange for cooperative transmission assistance for the sake of minimizing its transmit power and simultaneously satisfying its transmit rate requirement. The ST has an incentive to collaborate with the best PT for the sake of minimizing the ST’s transmit power under the constraint of its QoS requirement, whilst simultaneously winning a transmission opportunity for its own traffic. Based on the OFs of the proposed WWRSF, a distributed WW reciprocal-selection-based medium access scheme (DWWRS-MAS) is designed, which is capable of producing the best cooperative pairs set for the sake of reducing the transmit power of both the PT and of the ST in each cooperative pair, whilst simultaneously satisfying their transmit rate requirements. This is achieved with the aid of the proposed distributed reciprocal selection between the active PTs and STs, which have the capability of providing successful cooperative transmission assistance. Moreover, we analyse both the queueing stability and the algorithmic stability of our cooperative spectrum leasing system exploiting our DWWRS-MAS. In comparison to the benchmark schemes considered in the literature, the proposed DWWRS-MAS is capable of achieving a performance, which is comparable to that of the optimal schemes in terms of the system’s transmit power and system’s achievable transmit rate.

Thesis (M.S.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2006.
Thesis research directed by: Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

Broadly speaking, wireless ad hoc networks are permeated by cooperative behaviors. In such systems, indeed, nodes have to continuously pool their resources to achieve goals that are of general interest, such as routing packets towards a destination that would otherwise be out of reach for an information source, or coordinating medium access so as to successfully share a common spectrum. Recently, however, the idea of collaboration has gathered a renewed and increasing deal of attention in the research community thanks to the development of innovative concepts, most notably the idea of cooperative relaying, that have been shown to unleash significant improvements, going beyond some intrinsic limitations that affect wireless communications systems. While these emerging solutions have been thoroughly studied from a theoretical perspective, the advantages they offer can be reaped in real world implementations only if additional coordination among nodes is provided, so that cooperating terminals are allowed to offer their help obeying the rules that control medium access, and without disrupting the normal activity of the network. Along this line of reasoning, this thesis focuses on the design and study of link layers that implement cooperation in ad hoc networks. The contribution of our work is twofold. On the one hand, we introduce novel and beneficial collaborative strategies, while on the other hand we investigate how the intrinsic nature of different medium access control policies can be more or less beneficial to cooperative behaviors. In the first part, we present an innovative approach to cooperation in networks with multi-antenna equipped nodes that rely on directional transmissions and receptions. Our solution proposes terminals to share information on ongoing communications to better coordinate medium access at the link layer, and manages to overcome issues such as node deafness that typically hamper the potential of large scale directional wireless systems. The central part of this work, conversely, concentrates on the simpler ad hoc scenario where omnidirectional communications are in place, and tackles some inefficiencies of the cooperative relaying paradigm. In particular, we introduce the novel concept of hybrid cooperative-network coded ARQ, which allows a relay to code data of its own together with a corrupted packet during a retransmission at no additional cost in terms of bandwidth. Such a solution encourages nodes to cooperate, since they are offered the possibility to pursue a goal of their interest while helping surrounding terminals. Moreover, the capability of exploiting retransmissions to serve additional traffic, achieved by smartly taking advantage of network coding techniques, triggers beneficial effects also at a network level in terms of sustainable throughput and reduced congestion. The potential of the proposed approach is first investigated by means of mathematical analysis, while subsequently extensive simulation campaigns test the effectiveness of link layers that implement it in a variety of networking environments. Taking the cue from a reasoned comparison of the results achieved by relaying schemes in different scenarios, we devote the final part of the thesis to the investigation of the impact that distinct spectrum control policies can have on collaborative behaviors. Combining once again mathematical analysis and simulations, we consider how the characteristics of completely distributed, e.g., carrier sense based, and centralized, e.g., time division based, systems influence the effectiveness of a given cooperative strategy. Not only does our study shed light on the relations that exist between cooperation and medium access, but also it provides important hints on how to efficiently design link layers capable of supporting such techniques. Finally, the appendix of this thesis reports the outcome of a research activity, carried out in collaboration with the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory (Switzerland), whose focus falls out of the topic of cooperative link layers and covers the design of energy-efficient routing protocols for wireless sensor networks.
Le reti wireless ad hoc presentano in generale moltissimi comportamenti di natura cooperativa, nei quali i nodi condividono le loro risorse per perseguire un interesse di utilità comune. Basti pensare, in tal senso, alle procedure di routing per la consegna di traffico multihop, o allo scambio di informazioni tra terminali necessario per riuscire a gestire in modo efficace uno spettro condiviso. Recentemente, inoltre, è progressivamente emerso un rinnovato e crescente interesse nella comunità di ricerca per il concetto di collaborazione tra nodi, grazie allo sviluppo di nuovi paradigmi, tra i quali in primis l'idea del relaying cooperativo, che si sono dimostrati in grado di mitigare brillantemente alcuni problemi tipici dei sistemi wireless, rendendo possibili significativi miglioramenti delle prestazioni. Sebbene tali soluzioni innovative siano state oggetto di notevole attenzione in letteratura, gli studi su di esse si sono concentrati principalmente su trattazioni di natura analitica, atte a dimostrarne le potenzialità e i vantaggi nell'ottica della teoria dell'informazione. Approcci di questo tipo tendono chiaramente a considerare, ai fini della trattabilità matematica, topologie semplificate quali reti a tre soli nodi, e spesso assumono un accesso al mezzo idealizzato. Nel momento in cui queste idee vogliano essere implementate in scenari reali, tuttavia, si rende necessario un profondo raffinamento della coordinazione a livello di rete, dal momento che i nodi cooperanti devono comunque sottostare alle regole che caratterizzano la gestione del canale (link layer), di modo da offrire il loro contributo senza ostacolare la normale attività della rete. Prendendo spunto da tale riflessione, questa tesi si concentra sulla definizione e l'analisi di link layer che implementino soluzioni cooperative in reti ad hoc. Due sono i principali contributi del lavoro. Se da un lato, infatti, sono introdotti paradigmi innovativi ed efficaci, dall'altro viene presentato uno studio articolato e completo su come diverse politiche di accesso al mezzo possano influenzare tali comportamenti cooperativi. La prima parte della tesi si focalizza sullo sviluppo di un nuovo approccio collaborativo per reti i cui terminali, dotati di sistemi multiantenna, siano in grado di effettuare trasmissioni e ricezioni direzionali. L'idea proposta prevede che i nodi condividano, tramite scambio di brevi pacchetti di controllo, informazioni sulle comunicazioni attive di cui sono a conoscenza, per poter favorire la maggior distribuzione possibilie di una percezione corretta dello stato del sistema al fine di garantire una migliore coordinazione nell'accesso al mezzo. Studi dedicati dimostrano come tale soluzione sia in grado di superare problemi, quali la sordità di nodo (deafness), che spesso limitano l'efficacia delle trasmissioni direzionali in reti con numero elevato di dispositivi, portando a importanti guadagni in termini di prestazione complessive. La parte centrale del lavoro, al contrario, prende in considerazione reti ad hoc con comunicazioni omnidirezionali, e affronta alcune inefficienze che caratterizzano il paradigma di relaying cooperativo. In particolare, viene introdotto per la prima volta il concetto innovativo di ARQ ibrido cooperativo-network coded, che permette a nodi che agiscano da relay di utilizzare le ritrasmissione di un pacchetto in vece di una sorgente, non in grado di consegnarlo, al fine di servire anche del proprio traffico. Tale approccio, a differenza del comportamento puramente altruistico richiesto dal relaying semplice, incoraggia i terminali a cooperare, offrendo loro la possibilità di perseguire un loro interesse contingente nell'atto stesso di aiutare altri nodi in difficoltà. Inoltre, la capacità di sfruttare il meccanismo di ritrasmissione per servire traffico addizionale, resa possibile dall'utilizzo di tecniche di combinazione lineare sui dati caratteristiche del network coding, getta le basi per benefici anche a livello di rete, quali un incremento del throughput sostenibile e una riduzione della congestione nell'utilizzo della banda. Le potenzialità della soluzione identificata sono dapprima studiate per mezzo di modelli matematici, seguendo le modalità tipicamente riscontrabili in letteratura. Successivamente sono proposti l'implementazione e lo studio simulativo di diversi link layer in grado di supportare tale forma di ARQ ibrido in contesti differenti, quali reti completamente distribuite e reti maggiormente strutturate. Traendo spunto da un confronto ragionato dei risultati ottenibili da schemi di relaying in scenari di rete diversi, la parte finale di questa tesi è dedicata alla discussione dell'impatto che politiche di accesso al mezzo distinte possono avere su comportamenti di natura cooperativa. Combinando ancora una volta analisi matematica e studi simulativi, viene affrontato il problema di come le caratteristiche intrinseche di sistemi basati su carrier sensing e su condivisione del mezzo a multiplazione di tempo influenzino l'efficacia di meccanismi di collaborazione tra nodi. Le osservazioni ottenute tramite questo approccio non solo mettono in luce la stretta relazione esistente tra politiche di gestione dello spettro e cooperazione, ma al tempo stesso forniscono importanti suggerimenti sulla progettazione di link layer in grado di supportare in modo efficace tali strategie. In appendice, infine, vengono riportati i risultati di attività di ricerca svolte in collaborazione con i laboratori di ricerca IBM di Zurigo (Svizzera) e incentrate su tematiche che si discostano leggermente dal fulcro della tesi, quali la progettazione di teniche di routing per reti wireless di sensori, con particolare attenzione all'efficienza energetica.

Cognitive Radio (CR) is one possible option for mitigating the inefficient wireless spectrum distribution that occurs as a result of fixed spectrum allocation. The use of Dynamic Spectrum Access capabilities will potentially enable secondary users to utilize available and unoccupied frequency slots (channels) whenever the licensed users for those channels are absent. In Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs), whenever users access the spectrum in an opportunistic manner, control messaging is a crucial issue to ensure that secondary users, i.e. Cognitive Radio Users (CRUs), do not interfere with the licensed users, i.e. Primary Users. In CRNs, where not all CRUs share the same set of channels, i.e. CRUs with Heterogeneous Frequency Devices (HFD), a set of channels must be chosen with care to allow all CRUs in the network to be able to transmit and receive control information. The thesis considers how Control Messaging Schemes (CMSs) can be used within CRNs and proposes a novel CMS for a CRN supporting HFDs. The thesis starts by classifying the CMSs; generating a new taxonomy and identifying the main characteristics for an efficient CRN with HFD. Then, different mathematical approaches for choosing the set of channels used for control information are presented. Next, a CMS for a CRN with HFDs model based upon the aforementioned characteristics and calculating the minimum number of channels for transmitting control information is proposed. Finally the thesis concludes with a number of CMS being presented and evaluated in terms of their impact upon transmission efficiency.

Abstract Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) offer us a potential for greater awareness of our surroundings, collecting, measuring, and aggregating parameters beyond our current abilities, and provide an opportunity to enrich our experience through context-awareness. As a typical sensor node is small with limited processing power, memory, and energy resources, in particular, these WSNs must be very energy-efficient for practical deployment. Medium access control (MAC) protocols are central to the energy-efficiency objective of WSNs, as they directly control the most energy consuming part of a sensor node: communications over the shared medium. This thesis focuses on evaluating MAC protocols within the WSN domain by, firstly, surveying a representative number of MAC protocols and their features. Secondly, three novel MAC protocols are proposed, one for layered contention-based access, one for layered scheduled access, and one for cross-layer contention-based access. Thirdly, a novel energy consumption model is proposed, and fourthly, a holistic MAC protocol evaluation model is proposed that takes into account application emphasis on performance metrics. The MAC protocols are evaluated analytically. In addition, the layered contention-based MAC protocol has been implemented and measured, and the cross-layer contention-based protocol operating over an impulse radio-ultra wideband (IR-UWB) physical layer has been verified by simulations with relevant physical layer characteristics. The energy consumption evaluation model proposed is straightforward to modify for evaluating delay, and it can reuse state transition probabilities derived from throughput analysis. The holistic application-driven MAC protocol evaluation model uses a novel single compound metric that represents a MAC protocol's relative performance in a given application scenario. The evaluations have revealed several significant flaws in sensor MAC protocols that are adapted to sensor networking from ad hoc networks. Furthermore, it has been shown that, when taking sufficient details into account, single hop communications can outperform multi-hop communications in the energy perspective within the feasible transmission ranges provided by sensor nodes. The impulse radio physical layer introduces characteristics to MAC protocols that invalidate traditional techniques which model the physical layer in terms of simple collisions. Hence, these physical layer characteristics have been modelled and included in the analysis, which improves the level of agreements with simulated results.

Abstract Medium access control (MAC) in wireless ad hoc networks has received considerable attention for almost a couple of decades; however, there are still open problems which deserve thorough study in order to facilitate migration to the next generation broadband wireless communication systems. In ad hoc networks, a detected frame collision can be due to the so-called unreachability problem, where the destination station is situated either in the transmission or interference range of an emitting station and is unable to receive connection establishment frames from any of its neighboring stations. Unreachability might also be due to the inability of a radio station to respond to any connection establishment request, though when the unreachable station receives the connection establishment requests, however, it is prohibited from responding to the requests due to being situated in the interference range of the emitting neighbor. To investigate the impact of this problem, we have to be equipped with a proper analytical framework; therefore, as the first part of this thesis, a scalable framework called Parallel Space – Time Markov chain (PSTMC) is proposed, through which a finite load non-saturated ad hoc network can be easily modeled. At the first step, a single-hop ad hoc network is considered and the accuracy of the model is evaluated using extensive numerical results. Subsequently, the proposed framework is further extended to model multi-hop ad hoc networks. Several discussions are also given on how the framework can be deployed for an arbitrary network topology. One of the main key features of the PSTMC model is its remarkable scalability in modeling complex network configurations. In fact, it is shown that multi-hop ad hoc networks have bounded complexity in being modeled by the PSTMC framework due to its spectacular specifications. These features lead us to a powerful tool by which an arbitrary network topology can be studied. In addition, the proposed models clearly facilitate demonstrating the impact of the unreachability problem on the performance of multi-hop networks. The introduced framework shows how the unreachability problem degrades the achieved throughput and channel capacity by the contending radio stations depending on the deployed network topology. In the remainder of the thesis the unreachability problem in mobile ad hoc networks is tackled and a new MAC protocol to enhance the performance of the network is proposed. This MAC scheme is equipped with smart decision-making algorithms as well as adaptive management mechanisms to reduce the impact of the unreachability problem in single channel scenarios. Subsequently, the problem of concurrent radio resource management and contention resolution in multi-channel cognitive ad hoc networks is considered. In particular, a multi-channel technique for traffic distribution among a set of data channels without centralized control, which is enabled by a probabilistic channel selection algorithm as well as a multi-channel binary exponential backoff mechanism, is proposed. It is shown through simulations that the suggested scheme outperforms the existing MAC protocols in multi-channel environments as well as cognitive networks coexisting with primary users. A mathematical model is also introduced to study the performance of the multi-channel MAC protocol in a single-hop non-saturated wireless network.

A Speck is intended to be a miniature device (measuring 5x5x5mm) that integrates sensing, processing and wireless networking capabilities. A network of Specks is called a Specknet, and the collaborative processing carried out on such a Specknet is termed as Speckled Computing. For the physical aspects, as the miniature Speck is still being realised, research began with the selection of the wireless communication medium followed by the development of a larger physical Speck prototype – the ProSpeckz. The ProSpeckz allowed algorithms targeted at Specks to be developed and analysed in the absence of the actual devices. A number of demonstrators for the ProSpeckz were developed to validate the prototype followed by the construction of an experimental platform – the PerSpeckz-64, which consisted of 64 ProSpeckz placed in a 8x8 grid to enable researchers to remotely execute and monitor algorithms on a network of ProSpeckz. In the case of the MAC layer, the focus was to develop and analyse MAC algorithms that enabled Specks to extend their lifetimes by duty-cycling the radio. A class of novel MAC algorithms, called SpeckMAC, was proposed and compared against B-MAC, a well known power-aware unsynchronized random-access MAC algorithm. Evaluations carried out using both mathematical models as well as physical implementation on the ProSpeckz and PerSpeckz-64 demonstrated that SpeckMAC outperformed B-MAC in terms of energy efficiency, delivery ratio and latency under both broadcast and unicast types of traffic. Finally, research in the networking layer explored the possibility of employing wireless Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) routing protocols on Specks given the underlying SpeckMAC algorithms. A hybrid algorithm, SpeckMAC-H, was also proposed to enable nodes to switch on-the-fly between the two versions of the Speck MAC algorithms to optimise energy efficiency. All the SpeckMAC algorithms were analysed using the Qualnet network simulator with Dynamic source Routing (DSR) and Ad-Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing (AODV) selected as the target MANET routing protocols. The simulations successfully demonstrated that it was indeed possible to employ MANET routing protocols with SpeckMAC as the underlying energy-efficient MAC algorithm.

The main contribution of this thesis is to present the design and evaluation of intelligent MAC protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The objective of this research is to improve the channel utilisation of WSNs while providing flexibility and simplicity in channel access. As WSNs become an efficient tool for recognising and collecting various types of information from the physical world, sensor nodes are expected to be deployed in diverse geographical environments including volcanoes, jungles, and even rivers. Consequently, the requirements for the flexibility of deployment, the simplicity of maintenance, and system self-organisation are put into a higher level. A recently developed reinforcement learning-based MAC scheme referred as ALOHA-Q is adopted as the baseline MAC scheme in this thesis due to its intelligent collision avoidance feature, on-demand transmission strategy and relatively simple operation mechanism. Previous studies have shown that the reinforcement learning technique can considerably improve the system throughput and significantly reduce the probability of packet collisions. However, the implementation of reinforcement learning is based on assumptions about a number of critical network parameters. That impedes the usability of ALOHA-Q. To overcome the challenges in realistic scenarios, this thesis proposes numerous novel schemes and techniques. Two types of frame size evaluation schemes are designed to deal with the uncertainty of node population in single-hop systems, and the unpredictability of radio interference and node distribution in multi-hop systems. A slot swapping techniques is developed to solve the hidden node issue of multi-hop networks. Moreover, an intelligent frame adaptation scheme is introduced to assist sensor nodes to achieve collision-free scheduling in cross chain networks. The combination of these individual contributions forms state of the art MAC protocols, which offers a simple, intelligent and distributed solution to improving the channel utilisation and extend the lifetime of WSNs.

The medical and economic potential of wireless Body Area Networks (BANs) is gradually being realised especially in the area of medical remote monitoring and telemedicine. Medical BANs will employ both implantable and body worn devices to support a diverse range of applications with throughputs ranging from several bits per hour up to 10 Mbps. The main consideration of this thesis was the long-term power consumption of BAN devices, as these devices have to perform all associated functions such as networking, processing, and RF communications powered usually only by a small battery. Implantable devices are expected to have a lifetime of up to 10 years. The challenge was to accommodate this diverse range of applications within a single wireless network based on a suitably flexible and power efficient medium access control (MAC) protocol. Analyses established that in ultra-low data rate wireless sensor networks (WSN) waking up just to listen to a beacon every superframe can be a major waste of energy. Based on these findings a novel medical medium access control (MedMAC) protocol was developed - capable of providing energy efficient and adaptable channel access in body area networks. The MedMAC protocol achieves significant energy efficiency through a novel synchronisation algorithm which allows the device to sleep through beacons while maintaining synchronisation. Energy efficiency simulations show that the MedMAC protocol outperforms the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol. Results from a comparative analysis of MedMAC and the emerging draft IEEE 802.15.6 wireless standard for BANs show that MedMAC has superior efficiency with energy savings of between 25% and 87% for the presented scenarios. Overall this work demonstrates a new mechanism for achieving significant energy savings for a significant sector of BAN devices that operate at ultra-low data rates.

This thesis studies the applications of biologically inspired algorithms and behaviours to the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). By exploring the similarity between a general communications channel and control engineering theory, we propose a simple method to control transmissions that we refer to as transmission delay. We use this concept and create a protocol inspired by Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) to optimise the communications. The lessons learned from this protocol inspires us to move closer to behaviours found in nature and the Emergence MAC (E-MAC) protocol is presented. The E-MAC protocol shows emergent behaviours arising from simple interactions and provides great throughput, low end-to-end delay and high fairness. Enhancements to this protocol are later proposed. We empirically evaluate these protocols and provide relevant parameter sweeps to show their performance. We also provide a theoretical approach to proving the settling properties of E-MAC. The presented protocols and methods provide a different approach towards MAC in WSNs.

In future wireless systems, such as 5G and beyond, the current dominating human-centric communication systems will be complemented by a tremendous increase in the number of smart devices, equipped with radio devices, possibly sensors, and uniquely addressable. This will result in explosion of wireless traffic volume, and consequently exponential growth in demand of radio spectrum. There are different engineering techniques for resolving the cost and scarcity of radio spectrum such as coexistence of diverse devices on the same pool of radio resources, spectrum aggregations, adoption of mmWave bands with huge spectrum, etc. The aim of this thesis is to investigate Medium Access Control (MAC) and routing protocols for 5G and beyond radio networks. Two scenarios are addressed: heterogeneous scenario where scheduled and uncoordinated users coexist, and a scenario where drones are used for monitoring a given area. In the heterogeneous scenario scheduled users are synchronised with the Base Station (BS) and rely on centralised resource scheduler for assignment of time slots, while the uncoordinated users are asynchronous with each other and the BS and rely unslotted Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) for channel access. First, we address a single-hop network with advanced scheduling algorithm design and packet length adaptation schemes design. Second, we address a multi-hop network with novel routing protocol for enhancing performance of the scheduled users in terms of throughput, and coexistence of all network users. In the drone-based scenario, new routing protocols are designed to address the problems of Wireless Mesh Networks with monitoring drones. In particular, a novel optimised Hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol (O-HWMP) for a quick and efficient discovery of paths is designed, and a capacity achieving routing and scheduling algorithm, called backpressure, investigated. To improve on the long-end-to-end delays of classical backpressure, a modified backpressure algorithm is proposed and evaluated.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2004.
Thesis research directed by: Electrical Engineering. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

Un réseau de capteurs sans fil (Wireless Sensor Network, WSN) consiste en une distribution spatiale d'équipements embarqués autonomes, qui coopèrent de manière à surveiller l'environnement de manière non-intrusive. Les données collectées par chaque capteur (tels que la température, des vibrations, des sons, des mouvements etc.) sont remontées de proche en proche vers un puits de collecte en utilisant des technologies de communication sans fil. Voilà une décennie que les contraintes inhérentes à ces réseaux attirent l'attention de la communauté scientifique. Ainsi, de nombreuses améliorations à différents niveaux de la pile de communication ont été proposées afin de relever les défis en termes d'économie d'énergie, de capacité de calcul et de contrainte mémoire imposés par l'utilisation d'équipements embarqués. Plusieurs déploiements couronnés de succès démontrent l'intérêt grandissant pour cette technologie. Les récentes avancées en termes d'intégration d'équipements et de protocoles de communication ont permis d'élaborer de nouveaux scénarios plus complexes. Ils mettent en scène des réseaux denses et dynamiques par l'utilisation de capteurs mobiles ou de différentes méthodes de collection de données. Par exemple, l'intérêt de la mobilité dans les WSN est multiple dans la mesure où les capteurs mobiles peuvent notamment permettre d'étendre la couverture d'un réseau, d'améliorer ses performances de routage ou sa connexité globale. Toutefois, ces scénarios apportent de nouveaux défis dans la conception de protocoles de communication. Ces travaux de thèse s'intéressent donc à la problématique de la dynamique des WSN, et plus particulièrement à ce que cela implique au niveau du contrôle de l'accès au médium (Medium Access Control, MAC). Nous avons tout d'abord étudié l'impact de la mobilité et défini deux nouvelles méthodes d'accès au médium (Machiavel et X-Machiavel) qui permettent d'améliorer les conditions d'accès au canal pour les capteurs mobiles dans les réseaux denses. Notre deuxième contribution est un algorithme d'auto-adaptation destiné aux protocoles par échantillonnage. Il vise à minimiser la consommation énergétique globale dans les réseaux caractérisés par des modèles de trafic antagonistes, en obtenant une configuration optimale sur chaque capteur. Ce mécanisme est particulièrement efficace en énergie pendant les transmissions par rafales qui peuvent survenir dans de tels réseaux dynamiques.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are dense clusters of sensor nodes, made up of small, intelligent, resource-constrained wireless devices that are deployed to monitor a specific phenomenon in a certain field. The sensor nodes can be constrained by limited power supply, memory capacity and/or processing capabilities, which means that the design of WSNs requires all algorithms and protocols to be lightweight and efficient, and use as little power as possible. The Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol in WSNs, defined by the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, employs the Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA-CA) algorithm to control the nodes contending for access to the communication medium. Though the performance of this protocol has been studied extensively, and several improvements to its backoff counter, superframe format and contention-free period (CFP) features have been proposed, very few studies have addressed improving the Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) feature. In this thesis, we study the impact of increasing the value of the contention window beyond the standard value of 2, on the performance of the MAC protocol. We propose a semi-persistent MAC protocol that is a hybrid form of 802.11 and 802.15.4, to achieve a favorable performance that can serve a broad range of applications over the IEEE 802.15.4-based WSNs. We build an analytical model of the proposed protocol based on Markov chain modelling and derive the analytical expressions of the performance metrics, which we then validate against the simulation result sets generated by our in-house built simulation framework. We prove analytically that the probability of collision of the semi-persistent MAC is lower than that of the standard protocol. Based on our theoretical and simulated models, we show that incorporating the semi-persistent feature into existing MAC protocols leads to significant improvement of the performance metrics, including the probability of collision, throughput, energy consumption, transmission delay and reliability, particularly for networks with a large number of sensor nodes.

This thesis focuses on using Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) for monitoring applications on epilepsy patients (EPs). With the increase of these types of patients and the necessity of continuous daily monitoring and the need for an immediate response to their seizures, the main objective of this thesis is to decrease the response time in order to save them from severe consequences, as well as to make them comfortable with the monitoring procedure. Our proposed Epilepsy Patients Monitoring System (EPMS) consists of five ordinary nodes distributed over the patient’s body, as well as a coordinator node and a receive node. These nodes detect the seizures and forward the data to the coordinator, which, in turn, collects the data and transmits it to the receiver, triggering an alarm concerning the seizure occurrence. We focus on the Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol, using the Sensor Medium Access Control (SMAC) protocol to decrease the generated delay, and the Carrier Sense Multiple Access/ Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) scheme to prevent collisions that can prolong the response time.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2007.
Thesis research directed by: Electrical Engineering. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

The research reported here deals with the design of the uplink flow control in a CDMA-based wireless access network. Demand from each source is assumed infinitely divisible, the control is rate-based and the service model is ATM/ABR (Available Bit Rate). The flow control problem in general is to manage---dynamically, and subject to prescribed constraints on transmitter power and signal-to-interference ratio---the instantaneous allocation of rate to individual sources. Our particular interest is in settings where the controller has access to information on downstream congestion (real or virtual) for each connection, and where quality-of-service is specified on time scales that are slow relative to the rate of channel variation. Our objective is to exploit the congestion feedback, as well as the temporal flexibility in the quality-of-service specification, to refine the match between resource allocation and need. We propose a framework in which the problem can be posed precisely, and provide a solution in the case that there is but a single base station. The solution has two components. One describes the set of rate allocations that are consistent with the power and SIR constraints. The other uses the congestion feedback, modeled by the states of certain reference buffers downstream of the base station, to select a specific rate allocation within the admissible rate region. The benefit in terms of call-carrying capacity is indicated through simulations.

Wireless networking is fast becoming the primary method for people to connect to the Internet and with each other. The available wireless spectrum is increasingly congested, with users demanding higher performance and reliability from their wireless connections. This thesis proposes a game-theoretic random access model, compliant with the IEEE 802.11 standard, which can be integrated into the distributed coordination function (DCF). The objective is to design a game theoretic model that potentially optimizes throughput and fairness in each node independently and, therefore, minimise channel access delay. This dissertation presents a game-theoretic MAC layer implementation for single-cell networks and centralised DCF in the presence of hidden terminals to show how game theory can be applied to improve wireless performance. A utility function is proposed, such that it can decouple the protocol's dynamic adaptation to channel load from collision detection. It is demonstrated that the proposed model can reach a Nash equilibrium that results in a relatively stable contention window, provided that a node adapts its behaviour to the idle rate of the broadcast channel, coupled with observation of its own transmission activity. This dissertation shows that the proposed game-theoretic model is capable of achieving much higher throughput than the standard IEEE 802.11 DCF with better short-time fairness and significant improvements in the channel access delay.

In current wireless communication systems, demands for extremely high data rates, along with spectrum scarcity at the microwave bands, make the millimeter wave (mmWave) band very appealing to provide these extremely high data rates even for a massive number of wireless devices. MmWave communications exhibit severe attenuation, vulnerability to obstacles (called blockage), and sparse-scattering environments. Moreover, mmWave signals have small wavelengths that allow the incorporation of many antenna elements at the current size of radio chips. This leads to high directivity gains both at the transmitter and at the receiver, directional communications, and, more importantly, possible noise-limited operations as opposed to microwave networks that are mostly interference-limited. These fundamental differences between mmWave networks and legacy communication technologies challenge the classical design constraints, objectives, and available degrees of freedom. The natural consequence is the necessity of revisiting most of the medium access control (MAC) layer design principles for mmWave networks, which have so far received less attention in the literature than physical layer and propagation issues. To address this important research gap, this thesis investigates the fundamental MAC layer performance metrics, including coverage, fairness, connection robustness, collision probability, per-link throughput, area spectral efficiency, and delay. The original analysis proposed in this thesis suggests novel insights as to the solutions for many MAC layer issues such as resource allocation, interference management, random access, mobility management, and synchronization in future mmWave networks. A first thread of the thesis focuses on the fundamental performance analysis and mathematical abstraction of mmWave wireless networks to characterize their differences from conventional wireless networks, i.e., high directivity, line-of-sight communications, and occurrence of deafness (misalignment between transmitters and receivers). A mathematical framework to investigate the impact of beam training (alignment) overhead on the throughput is established, which leads to identify a new alignment-throughput tradeoff in mmWave networks. A novel blockage model that captures the angular correlation of line-of-sight conditions using a new notion of "coherence angle" is proposed. The coverage and delay of directional cell discovery are evaluated, and an optimization approach to maximize long-term throughput of users with fairness guarantees is proposed. In addition, this thesis develops a tractable approach to derive the collision probability, as a function of density of the transmitters, transmission power, density and size of the obstacles, operating beamwidth, and sensitivity of the receiver, among the main parameters. The collision probability allows deriving closed-form expressions for the per-link and network throughput of mmWave networks, and thereby identifying that, contrary to mainstream belief, these networks may exhibit a non-negligible transitional behavior of interference from a noise-limited to an interference-limited regime. The second thread of the thesis builds on the previous fundamental performance analysis and modeling to establish new, efficient MAC protocols. The derived collision probability is used to evaluate per-link throughput, area spectral efficiency, and delay performance of common MAC protocols such as TDMA and slotted ALOHA, and to provide a fundamental comparison between pros and cons of contention-free and contention-based MAC protocols. The results suggest the use of on-demand interference management strategy for future mmWave cellular networks and collision-aware hybrid MAC protocols for mmWave ad hoc networks to reliably deliver messages without sacrificing throughput and delay performance. Moreover, the transitional behavior, together with significant mismatch between transmission rates of control and data messages, imposes the development of new hybrid proactive and reactive control plane architecture. This thesis identifies the prolonged backoff time problem, which happens in mmWave networks due to blockage and deafness, and proposes a new collision notification signal to solve this problem. Motivated by the significant mismatch between coverage of the control and data planes along with delay analysis of directional cell search, a novel two-step synchronization procedure is proposed for mmWave cellular networks. Also, the impact of relaying and multi-hop communication to provide reliable mmWave connections, to alleviate frequent handovers, and to reduce the beam training overhead is investigated. The investigations of this thesis aim to demystify MAC layer performance of mmWave networks and to show the availability of many new degrees of freedom to improve the network performance, e.g., in terms of area spectral efficiency, energy efficiency, robustness, delay, coverage, and uniform quality of service provisioning. The results reveal many special behaviors of mmWave networks that are largely ignored in design approach of the current mmWave networks. Given that the standardization of mmWave wireless cellular networks has not started as yet, and that existing standards of mmWave ad hoc networks are highly sub-optimal, the results of this thesis will provide fundamental design guidelines that have the potential to be very useful for future mmWave standardizations.

QC 20150907

Wireless Communication is the only solution for data transfer between mobile terminals to access the sensors and actuators in industrial environment Control Area Network (CAN) is desirable solution for many industrial applications since it meets the requirements of real-time transfer of messages between systems. In situations where the use of a cable is not feasible it is important and necessary to design wireless medium access control protocols for CAN to provide real-time communications. This thesis deals with modelling, simulation and performance analysis of wireless medium access control protocols for CAN. The main issue in this concept is to determine prioritisation of the messages in the wireless environment. In order to accomplish this, a Wireless Medium Access Control protocol called WMAC is first proposed for distributed environment. The prioritisation in the WMAC protocol is achieved by performing an operation of timing the interframe gap. In this method, every message within the network is assigned a unique time period before the transmission of the message. These individual time periods distinguish messages from each other and provides message priority. Second access method called Remote Frame Medium Access Control (RFMAC) protocol is proposed for centralised wireless environment. Since the central node organises the message traffic the prioritisation is accomplished automatically by the central node. Both protocols are evaluated by using simulation techniques. The third access method called Comb is designed by using an additional overhead which consist of binary sequence. The prioritisation in this access method is managed by the overhead. Additionally, the interconnection of wireless nodes is investigated. The results of the simulations and performance analysis show that the proposed protocols operating in the centralised and distributed environments are capable of supporting the prioritisation of the messages required for real-time industrial applications in a wireless environment.

Un réseau de capteurs sans fil (Wireless Sensor Network, WSN) consiste en une distribution spatiale d'équipements embarqués autonomes, qui coopèrent de manière à surveiller l'environnement de manière non-intrusive. Les données collectées par chaque capteur (tels que la température, des vibrations, des sons, des mouvements etc. ) sont remontées de proche en proche vers un puits de collecte en utilisant des technologies de communication sans fil. Voilà une décennie que les contraintes inhérentes à ces réseaux attirent l'attention de la communauté scientifique. Ainsi, de nombreuses améliorations à différents niveaux de la pile de communication ont été proposées afin de relever les défis en termes d'économie d'énergie, de capacité de calcul et de contrainte mémoire imposés par l'utilisation d'équipements embarqués. Plusieurs déploiements couronnés de succès démontrent l'intérêt grandissant pour cette technologie. Les récentes avancées en termes d'intégration d'équipements et de protocoles de communication ont permis d'élaborer de nouveaux scénarios plus complexes. Ils mettent en scène des réseaux denses et différentes méthodes de collection de données. Par exemple, l'intérêt de la mobilité dans les WSNs est multiple dans la mesure ou les capteurs mobiles peuvent notamment permettre d'étendre la couverture d'un réseau, d'améliorer ses performances de routage ou sa connexité globale. Toutefois, ces scénarios apportent de nouveaux défis dans la conception de protocoles de communication. Ces travaux de thèse s'intéressent donc à la problématique de la dynamique des WSNs, et plus particulièrement à ce que cela implique au niveau du contrôle de l'accès au médium (Medium Access Control, MAC). Nous avons tout d'abord étudié l'impact de la mobilité et défini deux nouvelles méthodes d'accès au médium (Machiavel et X-Machiavel) qui permettent d'améliorer les conditions d'accès au canal pour les capteurs mobiles dans les réseaux denses. Notre deuxième contribution est un algorithme d'auto-adaptation destiné aux protocoles par échantillonnage. Il vise à minimiser la consommation énergétique globale dans les réseaux caractérisés par des modèles de trafic antagonistes, en obtenant une configuration optimale sur chaque capteur. Ce mécanisme est particulièrement efficace en énergie pendant les transmissions par rafales qui peuvent survenir dans de tels réseaux dynamiques
A WSN consists in spatially distributed autonomous and embedded devices that cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions in a less intrusive fashion. The data collected by each sensor node (such as temperature, vibrations, sounds, movements etc. ) are reported to a sink station in a hop-by-hop fashion using wireless transmissions. In the last decade, the challenges raised by WSN have naturally attracted the interest of the research community. Especially, signicant improvements to the communication stack of the sensor node have been proposed in order to tackle the energy, computation and memory constraints induced by the use of embedded devices. A number of successful deployments already denotes the growing interest in this technology. Recent advances in embedded systems and communication protocols have stimulated the elaboration of more complex use cases. They target dense and dynamic networks with the use of mobile sensors or multiple data collection schemes. For example, mobility in WSN can be employed to extend the network coverage and connectivity, as well as improve the routing performances. However, these new scenarios raise novel challenges when designing communication protocols. The work presented in this thesis focuses on the issues raised at the MAC layer when confronted to dynamic WSN. We have rst studied the impact of mobility and dened two new MAC protocols (Machiavel and X-Machiavel) which improve the medium access of mobile sensor nodes in dense networks. Our second contribution is an auto-adaptive algorithm for preamble sampling protocols. It aims at minimizing the global energy consumption in networks with antagonist trafic patterns by obtaining an optimal configuration on each node. This mechanism is especially energy-efficient during burst transmissions that could occur in such dynamic networks

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) have enjoyed a tremendous growth in the last decade and the advancement in communication technologies has played a big role behind the success of ITS. Inter-vehicle communication (IVC) is a critical requirement for ITS and due to the nature of communication, vehicular ad-hoc network technology (VANET) is the most suitable communication technology for inter-vehicle communications. In Practice, however, VANET poses some extreme challenges including dropping out of connections as the moving vehicle moves out of the coverage range, joining of new nodes moving at high speeds, dynamic change in topology and connectivity, time variability of signal strength, throughput and time delay. One of the most challenging issues facing vehicular networks lies in the design of efficient resource management schemes, due to the mobile nature of nodes, delay constraints for safety applications and interference. The main application of VANET in ITS lies in the exchange of safety messages between nodes. Moreover, as the wireless access in vehicular environment (WAVE) moves closer to reality, management of these networks is of increasing concern for ITS designers and other stakeholder groups. As such, management of resources plays a significant role in VANET and ITS. For resource management in VANET, a medium access control protocol is used, which makes sure that limited resources are distributed efficiently. In this thesis, an efficient Multichannel Cognitive MAC (MCM) is developed, which assesses the quality of channel prior to transmission. MCM employs dynamic channel allocation and negotiation algorithms to achieve a significant improvement in channel utilisation, system reliability, and delay constraints while simultaneously addressing Quality of Service. Moreover, modified access priority parameters and safety message acknowledgments will be used to improve the reliability of safety messages. The proposed protocols are implemented using network simulation tools. Extensive experiments demonstrated a faster and more efficient reception of safety messages compared to existing VANET technologies. Finally, improvements in delay and packet delivery ratios are presented.

This licentiate thesis work investigates two medium access control (MAC) methods, when used in traffic safety applications over vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). The MAC methods are carrier sense multiple access (CSMA), as specified by the leading standard for VANETs IEEE 802.11p, and self-organizing time-division multiple access (STDMA) as used by the leading standard for transponders on ships. All vehicles in traffic safety applications periodically broadcast cooperative awareness messages (CAMs). The CAM based data traffic implies requirements on a predictable, fair and scalable medium access mechanism. The investigated performance measures are channel access delay, number of consecutive packet drops and the distance between concurrently transmitting nodes. Performance is evaluated by computer simulations of a highway scenario in which all vehicles broadcast CAMs with different update rates and packet lengths. The obtained results show that nodes in a CSMA system can experience unbounded channel access delays and further that there is a significant difference between the best case and worst case channel access delay that a node could experience. In addition, with CSMA there is a very high probability that several concurrently transmitting nodes are located close to each other. This occurs when nodes start their listening periods at the same time or when nodes choose the same backoff value, which results in nodes starting to transmit at the same time instant. The CSMA algorithm is therefore both unpredictable and unfair besides the fact that it scales badly for broadcasted CAMs. STDMA, on the other hand, will always grant channel access for all packets before a predetermined time, regardless of the number of competing nodes. Therefore, the STDMA algorithm is predictable and fair. STDMA, using parameter settings that have been adapted to the vehicular environment, is shown to outperform CSMA when considering the performance measure distance between concurrently transmitting nodes. In CSMA the distance between concurrent transmissions is random, whereas STDMA uses the side information from the CAMs to properly schedule concurrent transmissions in space. The price paid for the superior performance of STDMA is the required network synchronization through a global navigation satellite system, e.g., GPS. That aside since STDMA was shown to be scalable, predictable and fair; it is an excellent candidate for use in VANETs when complex communication requirements from traffic safety applications should be met.

Nowadays, the number of electronic devices in vehicles grows at an exponential rate. For the purpose of communication between these components, several standardized communication protocols such as controller area network (CAN), local interconnect network (LIN), and FlexRay have been developed and are used in vehicles. However, the use of additional wires for data communication still results in a significant increase in the complexity, volume, weight, and cost of wiring harness. Vehicular power line communication (V-PLC) is an interesting alternative that offers numerous advantages. This technology reuses the existing direct current (DC) power network in vehicles as the physical medium for data transmission and allows eliminating some of the wiring harnesses devoted to convey data signals. Hence, This technology can potentially reduce the vehicle cost, weight, and fuel consumption. However, to provide reliable communication over power lines, several challenges need to be addressed. These include impulsive noise produced by electrical devices connected to the bus and frequency-selective behavior of the power line channels introduced by impedance mismatches in the wiring harness. In this thesis, we study research challenges for the medium access control (MAC) protocol design of V-PLC networks. We propose MAC protocols for such systems, which provide fast collision resolution, and perform performance evaluations on these protocols in terms of collision probability, system throughput, and packet delay. Our results show that these protocols outperform the previously proposed protocol, contention detection and resolution (CDR) in all scenarios. We then investigate the effect of carrier sensing errors on the performance of the proposed MAC protocols. We start with addressing the problem of detection of unknown signals in impulsive noise by using a robust detector, which first removes the impulses from the signal and then performs linear signal detection on the cleaned samples. We obtain the network throughput and delay of the proposed protocols as a function of carrier sensing errors. We then suggest a framework for the optimal joint design of the physical layer signal detector and MAC layer protocol.

In recent years, the development of a large variety of mobile computing devices has led to wide scale deployment and use of wireless ad hoc and sensor networks. Wireless Sensor Networks consist of battery powered, tiny and cheap "motes", having sensing and wireless communication capabilities. Although wireless motes have limited battery power, communication and computation capabilities, the range of their application is vast. In the first part of the dissertation, we have addressed the specific application of Biomedical Sensor Networks. To solve the problem of data routing in these networks, we have proposed the Adaptive Least Temperature Routing (ALTR) algorithm that reduces the average temperature rise of the nodes in the in-vivo network while routing data efficiently. For delay sensitive biomedical applications, we proposed the Hotspot Preventing Routing (HPR) algorithm which avoids the formation of hotspots (regions having very high temperature) in the network. HPR forwards the packets using the shortest path, bypassing the regions of high temperature and thus significantly reduces the average packet delivery delay, making it suitable for real-time applications of in-vivo networks. We also proposed another routing algorithm suitable for being used in a network of id-less biomedical sensor nodes, namely Routing Algorithm for networks of homogeneous and Id-less biomedical sensor Nodes (RAIN). Finally we developed Biocomm, a cross-layer MAC and Routing protocol co-design for Biomedical Sensor Networks, which optimizes the overall performance of an in-vivo network through cross-layer interactions. We performed extensive simulations to show that the proposed Biocomm protocol performs much better than the other existing MAC and Routing protocols in terms of preventing the formation of hotspots, reducing energy consumption of nodes and preventing network congestion when used in an in-vivo network. In the second part of the dissertation, we have addressed the problems of habitat-monitoring sensor networks, broadcast algorithms for sensor networks and the congestion problem in sensor networks as well as one non-sensor network application, namely, on-chip communication networks. Specifically, we have proposed a variation of HPR algorithm, called Hotspot Preventing Adaptive Routing (HPAR) algorithm, for efficient data routing in Networks On-Chip catering to their specific hotspot prevention issues. A protocol similar to ALTR has been shown to perform well in a sensor network deployed for habitat monitoring. We developed a reliable, low overhead broadcast algorithm for sensor networks namely Topology Adaptive Gossip (TAG) algorithm. To reduce the congestion problem in Wireless Sensor Networks, we proposed a tunable cross-layer Congestion Reducing Medium Access Control (CRMAC) protocol that utilizes buffer status information from the Network layer to give prioritized medium access to congested nodes in the MAC layer and thus preventing congestion and packet drops. CRMAC can also be easily tuned to satisfy different application-specific performance requirements. With the help of extensive simulation results we have shown how CRMAC can be adapted to perform well in different applications of Sensor Network like Emergency Situation that requires a high network throughput and low packet delivery latency or Long-term Monitoring application requiring energy conservation.
Ph.D.
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Engineering and Computer Science
Computer Science PhD

Due to low cost and easy deployment, multi-hop wireless networks become a very attractive communication paradigm. However, IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) protocol widely used in wireless LANs was not designed for multi-hop wireless networks. Although it can support some kinds of ad hoc network architecture, it does not function efficiently in those wireless networks with multi-hop connectivity. Therefore, our research is focused on studying the medium access control in multi-hop wireless networks. The objective is to design practical MAC layer protocols for supporting multihop wireless networks. Particularly, we try to prolong the network lifetime without degrading performances with small battery-powered devices and improve the system throughput with poor quality channels. In this dissertation, we design two MAC protocols. The first one is aimed at minimizing energy-consumption without deteriorating communication activities, which provides energy efficiency, latency guarantee, adaptability and scalability in one type of multi-hop wireless networks (i.e. wireless sensor network). Methodologically, inspired by the phase transition phenomena in distributed networks, we define the wake-up probability, which maintained by each node. By using this probability, we can control the number of wireless connectivity within a local area. More specifically, we can adaptively adjust the wake-up probability based on the local network conditions to reduce energy consumption without increasing transmission latency. The second one is a cooperative MAC layer protocol for multi-hop wireless networks, which leverages multi-rate capability by cooperative transmission among multiple neighboring nodes. Moreover, for bidirectional traffic, the network throughput can be further increased by using the network coding technique. It is a very helpful complement for current rate-adaptive MAC protocols under the poor channel conditions of direct link. Finally, we give an analytical model to analyze impacts of cooperative node on the system throughput.