Medium Access Control for Opportunistic Concurrent Transmissions under Shadowing Channels

We study the problem of how to alleviate the exposed terminal effect in multi-hop wireless networks in the presence of log-normal shadowing channels. Assuming node location information, we propose an extension of the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol that sched-ules concurrent transmissions in the presence of log-normal shadowing, thus mitigating the exposed terminal problem and improving network throughput and delay performance. We observe considerable improvements in throughput and delay achieved over the IEEE 802.11 MAC under various network topologies and channel conditions in ns-2 simulations, which justify the importance of considering channel randomness in MAC protocol design for multi-hop wireless networks

A Unifying Framework for Local Throughput in Wireless Networks

With the increased competition for the electromagnetic spectrum, it is important to characterize the impact of interference in the performance of a wireless network, which is traditionally measured by its throughput. This paper presents a unifying framework for characterizing the local throughput in wireless networks. We first analyze the throughput of a probe link from a connectivity perspective, in which a packet is successfully received if it does not collide with other packets from nodes within its reach (called the audible interferers). We then characterize the throughput from a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) perspective, in which a packet is successfully received if the SINR exceeds some threshold, considering the interference from all emitting nodes in the network. Our main contribution is to generalize and unify various results scattered throughout the literature. In particular, the proposed framework encompasses arbitrary wireless propagation effects (e.g, Nakagami-m fading, Rician fading, or log-normal shadowing), as well as arbitrary traffic patterns (e.g., slotted-synchronous, slotted-asynchronous, or exponential-interarrivals traffic), allowing us to draw more general conclusions about network performance than previously available in the literature.Comment: Submitted for journal publicatio

Performance evaluation of wireless sensor networks for mobile event and mobile sink

Extending lifetime and energy efficiency are important objectives and challenges in-Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). In large scale WSNs, when the nodes are near to the sink they consume much more energy than the nodes far from the sink. In our previous work, we considered that the sink node was stationary and only event node was moving in the observation field. In this work, we consider both cases when the sink node and event node are moving. For the simulations, we use TwoRayGround and Shadowing radio models, lattice topology and AODV protocol. We compare the simulation results for the cases when the sink node and event node are mobile and stationary. The simulation results have shown that the goodput of TwoRayGround is better than Shadowing in case of mobile event, but the depletion of Shadowing is better than TwoRayGround in case of mobile event. The goodput in case of mobile sink is better than stationary sink when the transmission rate is lower than 10pps. For TwoRayGround radio model, the depletion in case of mobile sink is better than stationary sink when the number of nodes is increasedPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Routing efficiency in wireless sensor-actor networks considering semi-automated architecture

Wireless networks have become increasingly popular and advances in wireless communications and electronics have enabled the development of different kind of networks such as Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs), Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and Wireless Sensor-Actor Networks (WSANs). These networks have different kind of characteristics, therefore new protocols that fit their features should be developed. We have developed a simulation system to test MANETs, WSNs and WSANs. In this paper, we consider the performance behavior of two protocols: AODV and DSR using TwoRayGround model and Shadowing model for lattice and random topologies. We study the routing efficiency and compare the performance of two protocols for different scenarios. By computer simulations, we found that for large number of nodes when we used TwoRayGround model and random topology, the DSR protocol has a better performance. However, when the transmission rate is higher, the routing efficiency parameter is unstable.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Node Density Estimation in VANETs Using Received Signal Power

Accurately estimating node density in Vehicular Ad hoc Networks, VANETs, is a challenging and crucial task. Various approaches exist, yet none takes advantage of physical layer parameters in a distributed fashion. This paper describes a framework that allows individual nodes to estimate the node density of their surrounding network independent of beacon messages and other infrastructure-based information. The proposal relies on three factors: 1) a discrete event simulator to estimate the average number of nodes transmitting simultaneously; 2) a realistic channel model for VANETs environment; and 3) a node density estimation technique. This work provides every vehicle on the road with two equations indicating the relation between 1) received signal strength versus simultaneously transmitting nodes, and 2) simultaneously transmitting nodes versus node density. Access to these equations enables individual nodes to estimate their real-time surrounding node density. The system is designed to work for the most complicated scenarios where nodes have no information about the topology of the network and, accordingly, the results indicate that the system is reasonably reliable and accurate. The outcome of this work has various applications and can be used for any protocol that is affected by node density

Evaluation of Interference-Cancellation Based MAC Protocols for Vehicular Communications

Vehicular communications form an important part of future intelligent transport systems. Wireless connectivity between vehicles can enhance safety in vehicular networks and enable new services such as adaptive traffic control, collision detection and avoidance. As several new algorithms are being developed for enhancing vehicle to vehicle wireless connectivity, it is important to validate the performance of these algorithms using reasonably accurate wireless channel models. Specifically, some recent developments in the medium access control (MAC) layer algorithms appear to have the potential to improve the performance of vehicle to vehicle communications; however, these algorithms have not been validated with realistic channel models encountered in vehicular communications. The aforementioned issues are addressed in this thesis and correspondingly, there are two main contributions - (i) A complete IEEE 802.11p based transceiver model has been simulated in MATLAB and its performance & reliability are tested using existing empirically-developed wireless channel models. (ii) A new MAC layer algorithm based on slotted ALOHA with successive interference cancellation(SIC) has been evaluated and tested by taking into consideration the performance of underlying physical layer. The performance of slotted ALOHA-SIC and the already existing carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) scheme with respect to channel access delay and average packet loss ratio is also studied

Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks

In this chapter, we present a literature survey of an emerging, cutting-edge, and multi-disciplinary field of research at the intersection of Robotics and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) which we refer to as Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks (RWSN). We define a RWSN as an autonomous networked multi-robot system that aims to achieve certain sensing goals while meeting and maintaining certain communication performance requirements, through cooperative control, learning and adaptation. While both of the component areas, i.e., Robotics and WSN, are very well-known and well-explored, there exist a whole set of new opportunities and research directions at the intersection of these two fields which are relatively or even completely unexplored. One such example would be the use of a set of robotic routers to set up a temporary communication path between a sender and a receiver that uses the controlled mobility to the advantage of packet routing. We find that there exist only a limited number of articles to be directly categorized as RWSN related works whereas there exist a range of articles in the robotics and the WSN literature that are also relevant to this new field of research. To connect the dots, we first identify the core problems and research trends related to RWSN such as connectivity, localization, routing, and robust flow of information. Next, we classify the existing research on RWSN as well as the relevant state-of-the-arts from robotics and WSN community according to the problems and trends identified in the first step. Lastly, we analyze what is missing in the existing literature, and identify topics that require more research attention in the future