Title: Virtual gateways: enabling connectivity between MAC heterogeneous sensor networks

Authors: Daniel Van Den Akker; Chris Blondia

Addresses: PATS Research Group, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Antwerp – iMinds, Middelheimlaan 1, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium ' PATS Research Group, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Antwerp – iMinds, Middelheimlaan 1, B-2020 Antwerp, Belgium

Abstract: Over the years many different MAC protocols have been developed for sensor networks, each optimised for a different set of application requirements. Since these MAC protocols are not compatible with each other, there is generally no interoperability between sensor networks. This is a severe problem when connectivity between sensor networks is required. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of using virtual gateways, sensor nodes running multiple MAC protocols simultaneously on top of a single radio interface, to enable connectivity between sensor networks. To this end we have developed MultiMAC, a network stack for TinyOS capable of running multiple MAC protocols simultaneously. We show that the architecture of the MultiMAC stack is flexible and extensible enough to support a wide variety of MAC protocols and that the overhead of this network stack is minimal. We also discuss the results of our initial experiments with a testbed on the impact of using virtual gateways.

Keywords: sensor networks; MAC protocols; medium access control; interoperability; virtual gateways; MultiMAC; TinyOS; connectivity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSNET.2013.057514

International Journal of Sensor Networks, 2013 Vol.14 No.3, pp.133 - 143

Published online: 07 Nov 2013 *

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