A component-based architecture for power-efficient media access control in wireless sensor networks

ABSTRACT

The diverse requirements of wireless sensor network applications necessitate the development of multiple media access control (MAC) protocols to meet their varying throughput, latency, and network lifetime needs. Building new MAC protocols has proven to be extremely difficult, however, given the monolithic nature of existing protocol implementations as well as their dependence on a particular radio or processor platform. To address these issues, we propose the MAC Layer Architecture (MLA), a component-based architecture for power-efficient MAC protocol development in wireless sensor networks. MLA consists of optimized, reusable components that implement a common set of features shared by existing MAC protocols, as well as abstractions that encapsulate the intricacies of the hardware platforms they run on. Through an instantiation of MLA in TinyOS 2.0.1, we have implemented five representative MAC protocols. Empirical results show that MLA results in significant code reuse among different protocols, while achieving comparative performance and memory footprints to monolithic implementations of the same protocols.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
        D.2.11 Software Architectures

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
        D.2.13 Reusable Software
  D.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS

General Terms:
Design, Performance

Keywords:
TinyOS, media access architecture, power management