Piergiuseppe Di Marco

A generalized Markov chain model for effective analysis of slotted IEEE 802.15.4

A generalized analysis of the IEEE 802.15.4 medium access control (MAC) protocol in terms of reliability, delay and energy consumption is presented. The IEEE 802.15.4 exponential backoff process is modeled through a Markov chain taking into account retry limits, acknowledgements, and unsaturated traffic. Simple and effective approximations of the reliability, delay and energy consumption under low traffic regime are proposed. It is demonstrated that the delay distribution of IEEE 802.15.4 depends mainly on MAC parameters and collision probability. In addition, the impact of MAC parameters on the performance metrics is analyzed. The analysis is more general and gives more accurate results than existing methods in the literature. Monte Carlo simulations confirm that the proposed approximations offer a satisfactory accuracy.

Analytical Modelling of IEEE 802.15.4 for Multi-Hop Networks with Heterogeneous Traffic and Hidden Terminals

IEEE 802.15.4 multi-hop wireless networks are an important communication infrastructure for many applications, including industrial control, home automation, and smart grids. Existing analysis of the IEEE 802.15.4 medium access control (MAC) protocol are often based on assumptions of homogeneous traffic and ideal carrier sensing, which are far from the reality when predicting performance for multi-hop networks. In this paper, a generalized analysis of the unslotted IEEE 802.15.4 MAC is presented. The model considers heterogeneous traffic and hidden terminals due to limited carrier sensing capabilities, and allows us to investigate jointly IEEE 802.15.4 MAC and routing algorithms. The analysis is validated via Monte Carlo simulations, which show that routing over multi-hop networks is significantly influenced by the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC performance. Routing decisions based on packet loss probability may lead to an unbalanced distribution of the traffic load across paths, thus motivating the need of a joint optimization of routing and MAC.

Design Principles of Wireless Sensor Networks Protocols for Control Applications

Control applications over wireless sensor networks (WSNs) require timely, reliable, and energy efficient communications. This is challenging because reliability and latency of delivered packets and energy are at odds, and resource constrained nodes support only simple algorithms. In this chapter, a new system-level design approach for protocols supporting control applications over WSNs is proposed. The approach suggests a joint optimization, or co-design, of the control specifications, networking layer, the medium access control layer, and physical layer. The protocol parameters are adapted by an optimization problem whose objective function is the network energy consumption, and the constraints are the reliability and latency of the packets as requested by the control application. The design method aims at the definition of simple algorithms that are easily implemented on resource constrained sensor nodes. These algorithms allow the network to meet the reliability and latency required by the control application while minimizing for energy consumption. The design method is illustrated by two protocols: Breath and TREnD, which are implemented on a test-bed and compared to some existing solutions. Experimental results show good performance of the protocols based on this design methodology in terms of reliability, latency, low duty cycle, and load balancing for both static and time-varying scenarios. It is concluded that a system-level design is the essential paradigm to exploit the complex interaction among the layers of the protocol stack and reach a maximum WSN efficiency.

Modeling IEEE 802.15.4 Networks over Fading Channels

Although the performance of the medium access control (MAC) of the IEEE 802.15.4 has been investigated under the assumption of ideal wireless channel, the understanding of the cross-layer dynamics between MAC and physical layer is an open problem when the wireless channel exhibits path loss, multi-path fading, and shadowing. The analysis of MAC and wireless channel interaction is essential for consistent performance prediction, correct design and optimization of the protocols. In this paper, a novel approach to analytical modeling of these interactions is proposed. The analysis considers simultaneously a composite channel fading, interference generated by multiple terminals, the effects induced by hidden terminals, and the MAC reduced carrier sensing capabilities. Depending on the MAC parameters and physical layer thresholds, it is shown that the MAC performance indicators over fading channels can be far from those derived under ideal channel assumptions. As novel results, we show to what extent the presence of fading may be beneficial for the overall network performance by reducing the multiple access interference, and how this information can be used for joint selection of MAC and physical layer parameters.

MAC Protocol Engine for Sensor Networks

We present a novel approach for Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol design based on protocol engine. Current way of designing MAC protocols for a specific application is based on two steps: First the application specifications (such as network topology and packet generation rate), the requirements for energy consumption, delay and reliability, and the resource constraints from the underlying physical layer (such as energy consumption and data rate) are specified, and then the protocol that satisfies all these constraints is designed. Main drawback of this procedure is that we have to restart the design process for each possible application, which may be a waste of time and efforts. The goal of a MAC protocol engine is to provide a library of protocols together with their analysis such that for each new application the optimal protocol is chosen automatically among its library with optimal parameters. We illustrate the MAC engine idea by including an original analysis of IEEE 802.15.4 unslotted random access and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) protocols, and implementing these protocols in the software framework called SPINE, which runs on top of TinyOS and is designed for health care applications. Then we validate the analysis and demonstrate how the protocol engine chooses the optimal protocol under different application scenarios via an experimental implementation.

MAC-aware routing metrics for low power and lossy networks

In this paper, routing metrics for low power and lossy networks are designed and evaluated. The cross-layer interactions between routing and medium access control (MAC) are explored, by considering the specifications of IETF RPL over the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC. In particular, the experimental study of a reliability metric that extends the expected transmission count (ETX) to include the effects of the level of contention and the parameters at MAC layer is presented. Moreover, a novel metric that guarantees load balancing and increased network lifetime by fulfilling reliability constraints is introduced. The aforementioned metrics are compared to a routing approach based on backpressure mechanism.

Delay distribution analysis of Wireless Personal Area Networks

Characterizing the network delay distribution is a fundamental step to properly compensate the delay of Networked Control Systems (NCSs). Due to the random backoff mechanism employed by Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) protocols, it is difficult to derive such a distribution. In this paper, the probability distribution of the delay for successfully received packets in WPANs is characterized. The analysis uses a moment generating function method based on an extended Markov chain model. The model considers the exponential backoff process with retry limits, acknowledgements, unsaturated traffic, and variable packet size, and gives an accurate explicit expression of the probability distribution of the network delay. The probability distribution of the delay is a function of the traffic load, number of nodes, and parameters of the communication protocol. Monte Carlo simulations validate the analysis for different network and protocol parameters. We show that the probability distribution of the delay is significantly different from existing network models used for NCS design. Furthermore, the parameters of the communication protocol result to be critical to stabilize control systems.

Performance Analysis and Optimization of TCP over Adaptive Wireless Links

This paper proposes an analytical framework for performance evaluation of TCP (transport control protocol) over adaptive wireless links. Specifically, we include adaptation of power, modulation format and error recovery strategy, and incorporate some features of wireless fading channels. This framework is then used to pursue joint optimization through maximization of an objective functional, that expresses a trade-off between achievable throughput and energy costs. A set of numerical results is reported, and it is seen that hybrid ARQ schemes may provide significant benefits in the optimization framework

Limitations and performances of robust control over WSN: UFAD control in intelligent buildings

The aim of this paper is to propose a model-based feedback control strategy for indoor temperature regulation in buildings equipped with underfloor air distribution. Supposing distributed sensing and actuation capabilities, a zero-dimensional model of the ventilation process is derived, based on the thermodynamics properties of the flow. A state-space description of the process is then inferred, including discrete events and non-linear components. The use of a wireless sensor network and the resulting communication constraints with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard are discussed. Both synchronous and asynchronous transmissions are considered. Based on the linear part of the model, different H-infinity robust multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) controllers are designed, first with a standard mixed-sensitivity approach and then by taking into account the network-induced delay explicitly. The impact of the communication constraints and the relative performances of the controllers are discussed based on simulation results.

Cross-Layer Optimization for Industrial Control Applications Using Wireless Sensor and Actuator Mesh Networks

When multiple control processes share a common wireless network, the communication protocol must provide reliable performance in order to yield stability of the overall system. In this paper, the novel cross-layer optimized control (CLOC) protocol is proposed for minimizing the worst case performance loss of multiple industrial control systems. CLOC is designed for a general wireless sensor and actuator network where both sensor to controller and controller to actuator connections are over a multihop mesh network. The design approach relies on a constrained max-min optimization problem, where the objective is to maximize the minimum resource redundancy of the network and the constraints are the stability of the closed-loop control systems and the schedulability of the communication resources. The optimal operation point of the protocol is automatically set in terms of the sampling rate, scheduling, and routing, and is achieved by solving a linear programming problem, which adapts to system requirements and link conditions. The protocol has been experimentally implemented and evaluated on a testbed with off-the-shelf wireless sensor nodes, and it has been compared with a traditional network design and a fixed-schedule approach. Experimental results show that CLOC indeed ensures control application stability and fulfills communication constraints while maximizing the worst case redundancy gain of the system performance.