This paper describes the concept of sensor networks which has been made viable by the convergence of microelectro-mechanical systems technology, wireless communications and digital electronics. First, the sensing tasks and the potential sensor networks applications are explored, and a review of factors influencing the design of sensor networks is provided. Then, the communication architecture for sensor networks is outlined, and the algorithms and protocols developed for each layer in the literature are explored. Open research issues for the realization of sensor networks are

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This paper proposes a medium access control (MAC) protocol for ad hoc wireless networks that utilizes multiple channels dynamically to improve performance. The IEEE 802.11 standard allows for the use of multiple channels available at the physical layer, but its MAC protocol is designed only for a single channel. A single-channel MAC protocol does not work well in a multi-channel environment, because of the multi-channel hidden terminal problem. Our proposed protocol enables hosts to utilize multiple channels by switching channels dynamically, thus increasing network throughput. The protocol requires only one transceiver per host, but solves the multi-channel hidden terminal problem using temporal synchronization. Our scheme improves network throughput significantly, especially when the network is highly congested. The simulation results show that our protocol successfully exploits multiple channels to achieve higher throughput than IEEE 802.11. Also, the performance of our protocol is comparable to another multi-channel MAC protocol that requires multiple transceivers per host. Since our protocol requires only one transceiver per host, it can be implemented with a hardware complexity comparable to IEEE 802.11.

Capacity improvement is one of the principal challenges in wireless networking. We present a link-layer protocol called Slotted Seeded Channel Hopping, or SSCH, that increases the capacity of an IEEE 802.11 network by utilizing frequency diversity. SSCH can be implemented in software over an IEEE 802.11-compliant wireless card. Each node using SSCH switches across channels in such a manner that nodes desiring to communicate overlap, while disjoint communications mostly do not overlap, and hence do not interfere with each other. To achieve this, SSCH uses a novel scheme for distributed rendezvous and synchronization. Simulation results show that SSCH significantly increases network capacity in several multi-hop and single-hop wireless networking scenarios.

This paper proposes a medium access control (MAC) protocol for ad hoc wireless networks that can utilize multiple channels dynamically to improve performance. IEEE 802.11 standard provides multiple channels for use, but its MAC protocol is designed only for a single channel. We can achieve improved throughput with multiple channels because multiple transmissions can take place simultaneously without interfering each other.

Abstract—In this paper, we consider multi-hop wireless mesh networks, where each router node is equipped with multiple radio interfaces and multiple channels are available for communication. We address the problem of assigning channels to communication links in the network with the objective of minimizing overall network interference. Since the number of radios on any node can be less than the number of available channels, the channel assignment must obey the constraint that the number of different channels assigned to the links incident on any node is atmost the number of radio interfaces on that node. The above optimization problem is known to be NP-hard. We design centralized and distributed algorithms for the above channel assignment problem. To evaluate the quality of the solutions obtained by our algorithms, we develop a semidefinite program formulation of our optimization problem to obtain a lower bound on overall network interference. Empirical evaluations on randomly generated network graphs show that our algorithms perform close to the above established lower bound, with the difference diminishing rapidly with increase in number of radios. Also, detailed ns-2 simulation studies demonstrate the performance potential of our channel assignment algorithms in 802.11-based multi-radio mesh networks. I.

The spectrum of deployed wireless cellular communication systems is found to be underutilized, even though licensed spectrum is at a premium. To efficiently utilize the bandwidth left unused in a cellular system, the primary system (PRI), we propose an overlaid ad hoc secondary network (ASN) architecture, with the ASN operating over the resources left unutilized by the PRI. Our basic design principle is that the ASN operates in a nonintrusive manner and does not interact with the PRI. In this article we present the ad hoc secondary medium access control (AS-MAC) protocol to enable PRI-SEC interoperation, address a number of technical challenges pertinent to this networking environment, and evaluate the performance of the AS-MAC. In a single-hop ASN the AS-MAC transparently utilizes 75 percent of the bandwidth left unused by the PRI, while in multihop ASNs, due to spatial reuse, the AS-MAC can utilize up to 132 percent of the idle PRI resources in our experiments.

This paper compares, through analysis and simulation, a number of multichannel MAC protocols. We first classify these protocols into four categories based on their principles of operation: Dedicated Control Channel, Common Hopping, Split Phase, and Parallel Rendezvous protocols. We then examine the effects of the number of channels and devices, channel switching times, and traffic patterns on the throughput and delay of the protocols. Here are some of the conclusions of our study: 1) Parallel Rendezvous protocols generally perform better than Single Rendezvous protocols, 2) the Dedicated Control Channel protocol can be a good approach with its simplicity when the number of channels is high and the packets are long, and 3) the Split Phase protocol is very sensitive to the durations of the control and data phases. Our study focuses on a single collision domain.

Studies of ad hoc wireless networks are a relatively new field gaining more popularity for various new applications. In these networks, the Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols are responsible for coordinating the access from active nodes. These protocols are of significant importance since the wireless communication channel is inherently prone to errors and unique problems such as the hidden-terminal problem, the exposed-terminal problem, and signal fading effects. Although a lot of research has been conducted on MAC protocols, the various issues involved have mostly been presented in isolation of each other. We therefore make an attempt to present a comprehensive survey of major schemes, integrating various related issues and challenges with a view to providing a big-picture outlook to this vast area. We present a classification of MAC protocols and their brief description, based on their operating principles and underlying features. In conclusion, we present a brief summary of key ideas and a general direction for future work.

Abstract — Multi-frequency media access control has been well understood in general wireless ad hoc networks, while in wireless sensor networks, researchers still focus on single frequency solutions. In wireless sensor networks, each device is typically equipped with a single radio transceiver and applications adopt much smaller packet sizes compared to those in general wireless ad hoc networks. Hence, the multi-frequency MAC protocols proposed for general wireless ad hoc networks are not suitable for wireless sensor network applications, which we further demonstrate through our simulation experiments. In this paper, we propose MMSN, which takes advantage of multi-frequency availability while, at the same time, takes into account the restrictions in wireless sensor networks. In MMSN, four frequency assignment options are provided to meet different application requirements. A scalable media access is designed with efficient broadcast support. Also, an optimal non-uniform backoff algorithm is derived and its lightweight approximation is implemented in MMSN, which significantly reduces congestion in the time synchronized media access design. Through extensive experiments, MMSN exhibits prominent ability to utilize parallel transmission among neighboring nodes. It also achieves increased energy efficiency when multiple physical frequencies are available. I.