A framework for simulation and evaluation of cross-layer techniques in wireless sensor networks

Cross-Layer design is a new technique which can be used to improve the performance in wireless sensor networks under the severe restrictions of the energy consumption. Cross-layer techniques intended to create an optimization of the limited resources, taking into account factors associated with different layers of traditional communication schemes, opening a new way for the development of complex communications mechanism. However, because these techniques are based on a non-standard architecture, its structure has a lot of dissimilar characteristics that obstruct a comprehensive comparison of its performance. In this paper, we propose a framework for simulation and evaluation of cross-layer techniques in wireless sensor networks. Our framework promotes a fairness comparison of different communication schemes, a realistic model simulation, an experiment design and a rigorous analysis of results with ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) technique. As a case study, we test our comparative simulation framework with to two popular cross-layer schemes showing the facility of use and the result of the analysis of the data.