Funneling-mac a localized, sink-oriented mac for boosting fidelity in sensor networks.pdf

Funneling-MAC: A Localized, Sink-Oriented MAC For Boosting Fidelity in Sensor Networks Gahng-Seop Ahn?, Emiliano Miluzzo?, Andrew T. Campbell? Se Gi Hong?, Francesca Cuomo?? ?EE Dept., Columbia University ?CS Dept., Dartmouth College ??University “La Sapienza” New York, NY, USA Hanover, NH, USA Rome, Italy Abstract Sensor networks exhibit a unique funneling effect which is a product of the distinctive many-to-one, hop-by-hop traffic pattern found in sensor networks, and results in a significant increase in transit traffic intensity, collision, congestion, packet loss, and energy drain as events move closer toward the sink. While network (e.g., congestion control) and application techniques (e.g., aggregation) can help counter this problem they cannot fully alleviate it. We take a different but complementary approach to solving this problem than found in the literature and present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a localized, sink-oriented, funneling-MAC capable of mitigating the funneling effect and boosting application fidelity in sensor networks. The funneling-MAC is based on a CSMA/CA being implemented network-wide, with a localized TDMA algorithm overlaid in the funneling region (i.e., within a small number of hops from the sink). In this sense, the funneling-MAC represents a hybrid MAC approach but does not have the scalability problems associated with the network-wide deployment of TDMA. The funneling-MAC is sink-oriented because the burden of managing the TDMA scheduling of sensor events in the funneling region falls on the sink node, and not on resource limited sensor nodes; and it is localized because TDMA only operates locally in the funneling region close to the sink and not across the complete sensor field. We show through experimental results from a 45 mica-2 testbed that the funnelin