Title
The case for a network protocol isolation layer
Abstract
Network protocols are typically designed and tested individually. In practice, however, applications use multiple protocols concurrently. This discrepancy can lead to failures from unanticipated interactions between protocols. In this paper, we argue that sensor network communication stacks should have an isolation layer, whose purpose is to make each protocol's perception of the wireless channel independent of what other protocols are running. We identify two key mechanisms the isolation layer must provide: shared collision avoidance and fair channel allocation. We present an example design of an isolation layer that builds on the existing algorithms of grant-to-send and fair queueing. However, the complexities of wireless make these mechanisms insufficient by themselves. We therefore propose two new mechanisms that address these limitations: channel decay and fair cancellation. Incorporating these new mechanisms reduces the increase in end-to-end delivery cost associated with concurrently operating two protocols by more than 60%. The isolation layer improves median protocol fairness from 0.52 to 0.96 in Jain's fairness index. Together, these results show that using an isolation layer makes protocols more efficient and robust.
Year
DOI
Venue
2009
10.1145/1644038.1644065
SenSys
Keywords
Field
DocType
network protocol isolation layer,fair cancellation,new mechanism,isolation layer,fair queueing,channel decay,median protocol fairness,fairness index,concurrently operating,fair channel allocation,multiple protocols concurrently,indexation,wireless network,sensor network,channel allocation,col,network protocol
Application layer,Wireless,Computer science,Network architecture,Computer network,Communication channel,Real-time computing,Channel allocation schemes,Wireless sensor network,Communications protocol,Fair queuing
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
22
1.65
35
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jung Il Choi195679.60
Maria A. Kazandjieva2767.42
Mayank Jain3100282.11
Philip Levis45510414.57