Abstract
OpenMAC is presented in this paper as an innovative experimental platform suitable for field testing and performance evaluation of Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols developed in C++. The concept design of OpenMAC avoids the use of hardware-specific code or Hardware Description Language (HDL), softening the learning curve and accelerating the implementation process. This paper describes the OpenMAC hardware/software architecture and shows its benefits with a design example of a Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) protocol. Finally, the paper provides the implementation details and presents performance results of a practical test to demonstrate how OpenMAC can fulfill strict MAC timing specifications and thus perform as a device backwards compatible with standards.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Kotz, D., Newport, C., Gray, R.S., Liu, J., Yuan, Y., Elliott, C.: Experimental evaluation of wireless simulation assumptions. In: Proceedings of MSWiM (2004)
Vázquez Gallego, F., Alonso-Zarate, J., Alonso, L., Verikoukis, C.: A Survey on Prototyping Platforms for the Development and Experimental Evaluation of Medium Access Control Protocols. IEEE Wireless Communication Magazine 19(1), 74–81 (2012)
Korakis, T., Knox, M., Erkip, E., Panwar, S.: Cooperative Network Implementation Using Open-Source Platforms. IEEE Communications Magazine 47(2), 134–141 (2009)
Lu, M.H., Steenkiste, P., Chen, T.: Using Commodity Hardware Platform to Develop and Evaluate CSMA Protocols. In: Proceedings of the Third ACM International Workshop on Wireless Network Testbeds, Experimental Evaluation and Characterization, San Francisco, pp. 73–80 (2008)
Verikoukis, C., Pérez-Neira, A., Alonso-Zárate, J., Skianis, C.: Experimental Performance Evaluation of a MAC Protocol for Cooperative ARQ Scenarios. In: Proc. of the IEEE GLOBECOM, Hawaii (2009)
Pawelczak, P., Nolan, K., Doyle, L., Oh, S.W., Cabric, D.: Cognitive radio: Ten years of experimentation and development. IEEE Communications Magazine 49(3), 90–100 (2011)
Chowdhury, K.R., Melodia, T.: Platforms and Testbeds for Experimental Evaluation of Cognitive Ad Hoc Networks. IEEE Communications Magazine 48(9), 96–104 (2010)
Tikkanen, K., Hännikäinen, M., Hämäläinen, T., Saarinen, J.: Advanced Prototype Platform for a Wireless Multimedia Local Area Network. In: 10th European signal processing conference (EUSIPCO), Tampere, pp. 2309–2312 (2000)
Nychis, G., Hottelier, T., Yang, Z., Seshan, S., Steenkiste, P.: Enabling MAC Protocol Implementations on Software-Defined Radios. In: Proceedings of the USENIX NSDI, Boston (2009)
Blossom, E.: Exploring GNU Radio (2004), http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio/doc/exploring-gnuradio.html
Hunter, C., Camp, J., Murphy, P., Sabharwal, A., Dick, C.: A flexible framework for wireless medium access protocols. In: Asilomar (2006)
Manfrin, R., Zanella, A., Zorzi, M.: Functional and Performance Analysis of CalRadio 1 platform. In: 8th IEEE International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications, Cambridge, pp. 300–305 (2009)
OpenAirInterface, http://www.openairinterface.org/
Vázquez Gallego, F., Alonso-Zarate, J., Liss, C., Verikoukis, C.: OpenMAC: A New Reconfigurable Experimental Platform for Energy-Efficient Medium Access Control Protocols. IET Science, Measurement & Technology Journal (in press)
Xilinx, Virtex-5 FXT FPGAs, http://www.xilinx.com/products/virtex5/fxt.html
HiTech Global LLC, http://www.hitechglobal.com/
IEEE Std. 802.11-2007, Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) specifications (2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
About this paper
Cite this paper
Gallego, F.V., Alonso-Zarate, J., Gajic, D., Liss, C., Verikoukis, C. (2012). Implementation and Performance Evaluation of a New Experimental Platform for Medium Access Control Protocols. In: Korakis, T., Zink, M., Ott, M. (eds) Testbeds and Research Infrastructure. Development of Networks and Communities. TridentCom 2012. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 44. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35576-9_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35576-9_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-35575-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-35576-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)