An adaptive communication architecture for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

As sensor networks move towards increasing heterogeneity, the number of link layers, MAC protocols, and underlying transportation mechanisms increases. System developers must adapt their applications and systems to accommodate a wide range of underlying protocols and mechanisms. However, existing communication architectures for sensor networks are not designed for this heterogeneity and therefore the system developer must redevelop their systems for each underlying communication protocol or mechanism. To remedy this situation, we present a communication architecture that adapts to a wide range of underlying communication mechanisms, from the MAC layer to the transport layer, without requiring any changes to applications or protocols. We show that the architecture is expressive enough to accommodate typical sensor network protocols. Measurements show that the increase in execution time over a non-adaptive architecture is small.