Patent Application
20110069656
This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2009-0090036, filed Sep. 23, 2009, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The described technology relates generally to a wireless multi-hop network and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a method for performing synchronous medium access control (MAC) to improve performance of a wireless sensor network.
In wireless multi-hop networks, such as wireless sensor networks and mobile ad-hoc networks, data transmitted from a source node may arrive at a destination node via a relay of intermediate nodes.
Such wireless multi-hop networks are designed in view of transmission performances such as end-to-end transmission latency, a transmission rate, and the like, as in other communication systems. The wireless multi-hop networks may be designed in view of energy efficiency when energy-limited nodes are included in the wireless multi-hop networks.
A method by which a node operates in a wireless multi-hop network including a plurality of synchronized nodes is provided.
According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a method by which a source node operates in a wireless multi-hop network includes: selecting one of first to M-th frame structures (M is a natural number greater than or equal to 2), based on a data packet generation interval; when the source node is in an active state, synchronizing with neighboring nodes in a first synchronization period of the selected frame structure; and when the source node is in the active state, transmitting a control packet to a next hop in a data period of the selected frame structure, and waiting for a response from the next hop, the control packet indicating that the source node will transmit a data packet in a sleep period subsequent to the data period and including information on the selected frame structure. Here, each of the first to M-th frame structures defines a frame including at least one synchronization period, at least one data period, and at least one sleep period, and having a different duty cycle.
Each of the first to M-th frame structures may define a frame including a different number of sub-frames sequentially including a synchronization period, a data period, and a sleep period, and having a previously set time length T1, and the synchronization period and the data period of each sub-frame may have a fixed time length irrespective of the frame structure. The frame defined according to the m-th frame structure (m is a natural number ranging from 1 to M) may include 2m-1 sub-frames having a time length of Tm=T1/2m-1. Selecting one of first to M-th frame structures may include: if the data packet generation interval Dint is greater than or equal to 2·T1, selecting the first frame structure, and otherwise, selecting the m-th frame structure satisfying Tm-1≦Dint<2·Tm-1 (where m is a natural number greater than or equal to 2 and less than or equal to M).
The wireless multi-hop network may include a wireless sensor network.
According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method by which a node having a data packet to transmit operates in a wireless multi-hop network includes: determining a current frame structure; and when the node is in an active state, transmitting a control packet to a next hop in a data period of the determined frame structure, and receiving a response from the next hop, the control packet indicating that the node will transmit the data packet in a sleep period subsequent to the data period and including information on the determined frame structure. Here, the determined frame structure is one of first to M-th frame structures (M is a natural number greater than or equal to 2), and each of the first to M-th frame structures defines a frame including at least one synchronization period for synchronizing with neighboring nodes, at least one data period, and at least one sleep period, and having a different duty cycle.
According to still another aspect of the present disclosure, a method by which a node operates in a wireless multi-hop network includes: when the node is in an active state, synchronizing with neighboring nodes in a synchronization period of a current frame structure, the current frame structure being any one of first to M-th frame structures (M is a natural number greater than or equal to 2); when the node is in the active state, receiving a control packet from any one of the neighboring nodes in a data period of the current frame structure, the control packet indicating that the node will transmit a data packet in a sleep period subsequent to the data period and including frame structure information; when a next hop address included in the received control packet is an address of the node itself, updating the current frame structure with a frame structure according to the frame structure information; and operating according to the updated frame structure. Here, each of the first to M-th frame structures defines a frame including at least one synchronization period for synchronizing with the neighboring nodes, at least one data period, and at least one sleep period, and having a different duty cycle.
The above and other features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by describing in detail example embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:
It will be readily understood that the components of the present disclosure, as generally described and illustrated in the Figures herein, could be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following more detailed description of the embodiments of apparatus and methods in accordance with the present disclosure, as represented in the Figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure, as claimed, but is merely representative of certain examples of embodiments in accordance with the disclosure. The presently described embodiments will be best understood by reference to the drawings, wherein like parts are designated by like numerals throughout. Moreover, the drawings are not necessarily to scale, and the size and relative sizes of the layers and regions may have been exaggerated for clarity.
It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.
As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising,”, “includes” and/or “including”, when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions/acts noted in the blocks may occur out of the order noted in the flowcharts. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms used therein including technical or scientific terms have meanings understood by those skilled in the art. Terms generally defined in dictionaries should be construed as having a meaning on a context of related schemes, and not as having an abnormally or inordinately formal meaning, unless clearly defined.
The described technology may be applied to an environment allowing nodes in a wireless multi-hop network to be synchronized to a specific cycle and operate. For convenience of illustration, the described technology will be described in connection with a wireless sensor network. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that applicability of the described technology is not necessarily limited to the wireless sensor network.
The wireless sensor network is a combination of an existing wired/wireless network infrastructure and a sensor device for context awareness to provide a variety of application services. The wireless sensor network is capable of local area wireless communication and consists of sensor nodes that can autonomously build a network. The wireless sensor network can be applied to a variety of fields, such as industrial, environmental, military, and healthcare.
In
As illustrated in
In a future ubiquitous environment, system components must actively cope with a change of a service environment to build a network suitable for a service environment and provide services suitable for purposes. However, since in an existing wireless sensor network, a specific event is input to the sensor node so that the sensor node performs an operation for the event before the sensor node is disposed in the network, it is impossible to actively cope with events not input to the sensor node. Accordingly, it is difficult for the wireless sensor network to smoothly cope with a changing service and network environment. Also, the lifetime of the sensor node using a battery having limited power is closely related to the lifetime of the battery. For this reason, the sensor node must satisfy hardware requirements, such as very small size, low price and low power, provide stable communication between nodes in a changing network environment, and process various types of events in real time.
Among several technologies for a wireless sensor network, low-power technology is very important in view of sensor nodes operating with limited power. MAC in a wireless sensor network has been studied to minimize waste of power.
MAC protocol in the wireless sensor network may be classified into synchronous MAC protocol and asynchronous MAC protocol.
According to the synchronous MAC protocol, each node operates iteratively in an active period and a sleep period with a cycle of the active and sleep periods synchronized to neighboring nodes. In this disclosure, an active state refers to a state in which a node is allowed to perform receiving and overhearing operations and to perform a transmission operation when the node has signals to transmit (e.g., a control packet, a data packet, and an acknowledgement (ACK)). Here, the overhearing operation refers to an operation of overhearing a signal directed to another node. In this disclosure, the sleep state refers to a state in which a node does not perform reception and transmission operations for reduction of power consumption.
According to the asynchronous MAC protocol, each node wakes up in a predetermined cycle and receives a preamble packet. When data is directed to the node, the node maintains the active state to receive the data, and when the data is not directed to the node, the node immediately transitions to the sleep state.
The asynchronous MAC protocol eliminates packet exchange overhead for synchronization and exhibits a more excellent performance than the synchronous MAC protocol when there is less traffic on the network. However, when traffic increases on the network, preamble packet transmissions increase accordingly, leading to rapidly increased power consumption.
In routing-enhanced MAC (RMAC), which is a synchronous MAC protocol for a wireless sensor network which was proposed in a document, “RMAC: A Routing-Enhanced Duty-Cycle MAC Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks,” in INFOCOM 2007 pp. 1478-1486, May 2007, multi-hop data transmission is performed in one cycle using routing information of a network, thereby reducing power consumption and transmission latency in a sensor node. The content of the document is incorporated herein by reference within a range of the described technology.
According to the RMAC protocol, one frame consists of an active period and a sleep period. Here, a length Tactive of the active period is defined as a sum of a length Tsync of a synchronization period and a length Tdata of a data period, and one cycle Tcycle of a frame is defined as a sum of Tactive and a length Tsleep of the sleep period. Also, a duty cycle is defined as Tactive/Tcycle·100.
Meanwhile, a brief description of reference numerals shown in a lower portion of
In
According to the RMAC protocol, nodes exchange a control packet for synchronization to neighboring nodes in a synchronization period and exchange information required for multi-hop data transmission with the neighboring nodes using a control packet called a pioneer (PION) in a data period, to reserve the data delivery path illustrated in
Examples of the information included in the PION include an address of a current node (i.e., a node for transmitting the PION), a next hop address, a time required for data transmission, a data destination address, and hop number information. Here, the hop number information is an accumulated hop number resulting from the PION passing through nodes in a data period of a current cycle, and is used to set a wake-up time in order to transmit and receive data in the sleep period. The hop number is initialized to zero and transmitted by a node that first transmits the PION in the data period, and is increased by one each time the PION passes through one hop. The nodes entering the sleep period transition to the sleep state, and among the nodes, only nodes that have successfully exchanged the PION (e.g., the source node, node A, node B, and node C in
The RMAC protocol has a characteristic that only nodes that have successfully exchanged the control packet in the active period nodes are activated in the sleep period to transmit data, and other nodes transition to the sleep state to decrease power consumption. However, since RMAC protocol operates in a fixed duty cycle, power consumption and transmission latency are traded off according to a ratio of Tactive and Tsleep. For example, when Tactive is fixed and the duty cycle increases, Tsleep becomes smaller and one cycle decreases. Accordingly, the packet throughput increases and the transmission latency decreases, but the active state is frequently maintained even when there is no packet transmission, which decreases power efficiency. On the other hand, when Tactive is fixed and the duty cycle becomes smaller, Tsleep increases and one cycle increases, which can decrease power consumption, but when a packet is generated in the sleep period, a waiting time of a packet in a buffer until an active state begins increases, leading to increased transmission latency.
Referring to
In this disclosure, when the PION is delivered from a first node to a second node, a response PION from the second node means a control packet (e.g., a type of ACK) that the second node actively transmits to the first node in order to indicate that the PION has been normally received, or, a PION overheard by the first node when the second node transmits the PION to a third node.
Meanwhile, in order to resolve problems of increased data transmission latency and unnecessary power waste in existing RMAC as illustrated in
In an exemplary embodiment, as shown in
In an exemplary embodiment, the source node determines a current frame structure based on a data packet generation interval Dint, includes information on the determined frame structure (i.e., frame structure information) in a PION, and transmits the resultant PION. In an exemplary embodiment, the source node measures the data packet generation interval Dint. When Dint≧2·Tmax
In an exemplary embodiment, nodes other than the source node (i.e., the nodes on the path to the destination that have received the PION) determine a frame structure based on the frame structure information in the PION directed to the nodes, as the current frame structure. In an exemplary embodiment, when the nodes other than the source node have frame structure information in several PIONs, the nodes determine a frame structure of the highest type as the current frame structure.
Since a generation interval Dint of a data packet be transmitted or relayed is expressed as T1≦Dint<2·T1, all nodes shown in
In
According to existing RMAC protocol, a node (e.g., node B in
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a node can maintain an additional active state to extend the multi-hop transmission distance by one hop. A node, such as node C of
Referring to
The node includes information on the frame structure determined in S700 in the PION and begins to transmit the resultant PION to the next hop (S710).
The node determines whether a point in time tTXstart at which the node begins to transmit the PION is between tsleep-DPION and tsleep (S720).
When tTXstart is earlier than tsleep−DPION, i.e., when the node does not enter the sleep period while transmitting the PION (S720), the node completes receiving the response PION (S740) and then terminates a communication operation in the data period (i.e., the PION delivery process).
When tTXstart is between tsleep−DPION and tsleep, i.e., when the node enters the sleep period while transmitting the PION (S720), the node maintains an additional active state during DPION+SIFS after completing control packet transmission (S730), receives the response PION (S740), and terminates the communication operation in the data period.
Referring to
The node determines whether a time tRXstart at which the node begins to receive the PION is between tsleep−DPION and tsleep (S810).
When tRXstart is earlier than tsleep−DPION, i.e., when the node does not enter the sleep period while receiving the PION (S810), the node determines whether a next hop address included in the received PION matches an address of the node (S820). When the next hop address included in the received PION does not match the address of the node (S820), the node discards the received PION and waits to receive another PION during a remaining data period (not shown). When the next hop address included in the received PION matches the address of the node (S820), the node updates the current frame structure with a frame structure according to the frame structure information included in the received PION (S830), and transmits a response PION (S840).
When tRXstart is between tsleep−DPION and tsleep, i.e., when the node enters the sleep period while receiving the PION (S810), the node maintains an additional active state during DPION−(tsleep−tRXstart) after entering the sleep period (i.e., after tsleep), completes receiving the PION (S850), and determines whether the next hop address included in the received PION matches the address of the node (S860).
When the next hop address included in the received PION does not match the address of the node (S860), the node discards the received PION and waits to receive another PION during a remaining data period (not shown). When the next hop address included in the received PION matches the address of the node (S860), the node updates the current frame structure with a frame structure according to the frame structure information included in the received PION (S870), maintains an additional active state during DPION+SIFS, and transmits a response PION (S880).
The present disclosure can be implemented as computer-readable code in a computer-readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium is any recording medium for storing data that can be read by a computer system. Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), a magnetic tape, a floppy disk, and optical data storage. Alternatively, the medium may be implemented in the form of carrier waves (e.g., Internet transmission). The computer-readable recording medium may be distributed among networked computer systems, and the computer-readable code may be stored and executed in a decentralized manner. And, functional programs, codes and code segments for implementing the present disclosure may be easily inferred by programmers skilled in the art.
The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure have the following advantages. However, since this does not mean that all the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure include the advantages, the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the advantages.
First, power consumption can be decreased. In the present disclosure, when less traffic is generated, a frame structure having a small duty cycle is selected to reduce an unnecessary wake-up period of the node and decrease the power consumption. Also, overhead of the control packet for transmitting data is reduced by extending the multi-hop data transmission distance, leading to decreased power consumption.
Second, the transmission latency is small. When traffic increases, a node can decrease the transmission latency by selecting a frame structure with a great duty cycle. It is possible to further decrease the transmission latency in one cycle by extending the multi-hop transmission distance.
Third, high data packet throughput is achieved. Since the sensor node operates in a changed frame structure so that the transmission latency does not rapidly increase with an amount of traffic, the high data packet throughput can be achieved.
With the above effects, the present disclosure can increase a lifetime of a wireless sensor network that must perform communication with limited resources, and can improve the performance of the wireless sensor network.
The foregoing is illustrative of the present disclosure and is not to be construed as limiting thereof. Although numerous embodiments of the present disclosure have been described, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in the embodiments without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of the present disclosure. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present disclosure as defined in the claims. Therefore, it is to be understood that the foregoing is illustrative of the present disclosure and is not to be construed as limited to the specific embodiments disclosed, and that modifications to the disclosed embodiments, as well as other embodiments, are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. The present disclosure is defined by the following claims, with equivalents of the claims to be included therein.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2009-0090036 | Sep 2009 | KR | national |
