Towards dynamic application-dependent protocol stacks for WSANs

This paper proposes components for application scenario-dependent protocol stack re-selection for wireless sensor and actuator networks. In addition, the methodology and performance results of the different components are presented. As wireless sensor and actuator networks become more widespread, also the number of application scenarios in which they are used, increases. Furthermore, the extensive research work conducted in the area of WSNs (e.g.) has not been able to produce a MAC and routing solution that would suit best in a large application range. Motivated by the lack of a unified solution, we propose a method for evaluating the best protocol stack for a given application scenario, and a methodology for dynamically reconfiguring the protocol stack, should the application or the expected traffic change significantly. The methodology is able to, a priori, evaluate the available protocol stacks with respect to applications, observe and reach consensus of the average traffic in the network in a distributed fashion, and initiate and conduct a protocol stack reconfiguration, either by remote code update or rebooting the sensor and actuator nodes with another protocol stack existing in the node external flash memory. While the integration work of the different components is in early phase, it is shown that the individual components perform well with respect to other state of the art solutions.