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A Survey on Cross-Layer Design

based MAC Protocols for WSN
Pranesh Sthapit

Wireless And Mobile Communication System Lab
2009-11-9
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Introduction
Wireless sensor network
- Large number of densely distributed nodes
embedded with processor, sensors and
radios
- Battery powered
- Multi-hop ad hoc wireless network
- Node positions and topology dynamically
change
- Self-organization
- Nodes cooperate for a common task
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Sensor networks difference from
traditional wireless network
node is battery powered
nodes are deployed in an ad hoc fashion
rather than with careful pre-planning
nodes density vary in different places and
time
traffic in network is triggered by sensing
events, and it can be extremely brusty
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Problem with layer architecture
Forbids direct communication non-adjacent
layers
- communication between adjacent layers is
limited to procedure calls and responses
poor flexibility and low efficiency
Wireless networks characteristics are quite
different from wired systems
Wireless channel characteristics generally
affect all traditional OSI-layers.
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Problem with layer architecture
Fixing problems locally inside the layers and
optimizing layers independently leads to
unsatisfactory results
Information exchange only between adjacent
layers limits the design potential of the
protocol.
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Motivation for Cross layer design
the unique problems created by wireless
links
the possibility of opportunistic
communication
new modalities of communication offered by
the wireless medium motivated for the cross-
layer design
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MAC Protocol Requirement for WSN
Power Efficiency
Real-time deadline
Congestion control
Scalability and adaptively
Others
- Fairness
- Throughput
- Channel utilization
Cross layer design
allows the direct communication between
protocols at nonadjacent layers or allows
sharing variables between layers.
Two types
- Interaction
- unification
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Some Cross layer MACS
PASA
- power adaptation for starvation avoidance
- interaction between PHY and MAC layer
- dynamically adjusts the transmission power of a node to
avoid starvation and offer a better fairness and
throughput by avoiding a channel capture.
- increases transmit power when successive packet losses
are detected, and decreases it when the number of
continuous successful transmissions exceeds a threshold.
- Neighbor power table (NPT) is maintained by each node
with information such as the minimum power that must
be maintained according to the distance to the
destinations
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MAC-CROSS
interaction between MAC and Routing layers
in RTS and CTS packets, a field
corresponding to a final destination address
is added
With the expiration of NAV (Network
Allocation Vector), only those nodes which
are in routing path from a source to a final
destination wake up.
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unified cross-layer module (XLM)
replaces the entire traditional layered
protocol
communication is based on initiative concept
A node starts a transmission by broadcasting
an RTS packet
each neighborhood node decides to
participate to communication by determining
an initiative I,
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XLM
-
rts
is the received (SNR) of RTS
- relay is transmission rate of packet
- is nodes buffer occupation,
- E
rem
is nodes residual energy
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max
min
(1)
,
1,
0
RTS Th
Th
relay relay
rem rem
if
otherwise
I
E E


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= s

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Joint phy, MAC, and routing layer

Joint optimal design of the physical, medium
access control (MAC), and routing layers
Algorithm for TDMA-based MACs
alternates between adaptive link scheduling
and computation of optimal link rates and
transmission powers for a fixed link schedule


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Challenges and Opportunities
Increase efficiency with trade off of design
complexity
tight coupling between the layers may become hard
to review and redesign
Changing one subsystem implies changes in other
parts
Cross-layer designs reduce flexibility,
interoperability and maintainability
need to integrate and further develop control theory
techniques to study stability properties of system
designed following a cross-layer approach


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Conclusions
because of limited resources available in
nodes, cross-layered designs have proven to
give better efficiency then modular design
cross-layer method could significantly
increase the design complexity and decrease
the advantages of layered method so it
needs extensive research


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Thank You