RadiaLE: A framework for designing and assessing link quality estimators in wireless sensor networks

—Stringent cost and energy constraints impose the use of low-cost and low-power radio transceivers in large-scale wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This fact, together with the harsh characteristics of the physical environment, requires a rigorous WSN design. Mechanisms for WSN deployment and topology control, MAC and routing, resource and mobility management, greatly depend on reliable link quality estimators (LQEs). This paper describes the RadiaLE framework, which enables the experimental assessment, design and optimization of LQEs. RadiaLE comprises (i.) the hardware components of the WSN testbed and (ii.) a software tool for setting up and controlling the experiments, automating link measurements gathering through packets-statistics collection, and analyzing the collected data, allowing for LQEs evaluation. We also propose a methodology that allows (i.) to properly set different types of links and different types of traffic, (ii.) to collect rich link measurements, and (iii.) to...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: ADHOC
• Authors: Nouha Baccour, Anis Koubaa, Maissa Ben Jamâa, Denis do Rosário, Habib Youssef, Mário Alves, Leandro Buss Becker
• Keywords: ADHOC 2011, Harsh Characteristics, Radio Transceivers, Software Engineering, Wireless Sensor Networks