Medium access control protocols and routing algorithms for wireless sensor networks
Authors: Mostafa A. Bassiouni
Venue:  (2007)

In recent years, the development of a large variety of mobile computing devices has led to wide scale deployment and use of wireless ad hoc and sensor networks. Wireless Sensor Networks consist of battery powered, tiny and cheap &ldquo;motes&rdquo;, having sensing and wireless communication capabilities. Although wireless motes have limited battery power, communication and computation capabilities, the range of their application is vast. In the first part of the dissertation, we have addressed the specific application of Biomedical Sensor Networks. To solve the problem of data routing in these networks, we have proposed the Adaptive Least Temperature Routing (ALTR) algorithm that reduces the average temperature rise of the nodes in the in-vivo network while routing data efficiently. For delay sensitive biomedical applications, we proposed the Hotspot Preventing Routing (HPR) algorithm which avoids the formation of hotspots (regions having very high temperature) in the network. HPR forwards the packets using the shortest path, bypassing the regions of high temperature and thus significantly reduces the average packet delivery delay, making it suitable for real-time applications of in-vivo networks. We also proposed another routing algorithm suitable for being used in a network of id-less biomedical sensor nodes, namely Routing Algorithm for networks of homogeneous and Id-less biomedical sensor Nodes (RAIN ). Finally we developed Biocomm, a cross-layer MAC and Routing protocol co-design for Biomedical Sensor Networks, which optimizes the overall performance of an in-vivo network through cross-layer interactions. We performed extensive simulations to show that the proposed Biocomm protocol performs much better than the other existing MAC and Routing protocols in terms of preventing the formation of hotspots, reducing energy consumption of nodes and preventing network congestion when used in an in-vivo network. In the second part of the dissertation, we have addressed the problems of habitat-monitoring sensor networks, broadcast algorithms for sensor networks and the congestion problem in sensor networks as well as one non-sensor network application, namely, on-chip communication networks. Specifically, we have proposed a variation of HPR algorithm, called Hotspot Preventing Adaptive Routing (HPAR) algorithm, for efficient data routing in Networks On-Chip catering to their specific hotspot prevention issues. A protocol similar to ALTR has been shown to perform well in a sensor network deployed for habitat monitoring. We developed a reliable, low overhead broadcast algorithm for sensor networks namely Topology Adaptive Gossip (TAG) algorithm. To reduce the congestion problem in Wireless Sensor Networks, we proposed a tunable cross-layer Congestion Reducing Medium Access Control (CRMAC) protocol that utilizes buffer status information from the Network layer to give prioritized medium access to congested nodes in the MAC layer and thus preventing congestion and packet drops. CRMAC can also be easily tuned to satisfy different application-specific performance requirements. With the help of extensive simulation results we have shown how CRMAC can be adapted to perform well in different applications of Sensor Network like Emergency Situation that requires a high network throughput and low packet delivery latency or Long-term Monitoring application requiring energy conservation.