Design and implementation of a cross layered protocol stack for sensor networks in an indoor environment

The massive escalation in the number of applications and the technology used in the development of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) over the last decade has compelled the designers to adopt a holistic approach while designing WSN applications. This implies that a designer should develop a protocol stack which would be flexible enough to be used by a group of applications if not all on account of differing properties of WSN for differing applications. However development of an independent layered protocol stack for every application would be quite cumbersome owing to the manpower and the time required for its implementation. Instead, it would be advisable to use a Cross-Layered Protocol Stack which would in turn fulfil the stringent constraints imposed by the sensor networks in terms of energy and memory cost. In this paper we have discussed the development of a Cross Layered protocol stack which is a structured approach to the design of high level WSN contrary to most monolithic Protocol stack design approaches. We have implemented the stack for a sensor network application consisting of TelosB motes using TinyOS. This protocol stack has been developed as a part of a project which aims at tracking a mobile entity in an indoor environment. This paper focuses on the development of protocols for 4 layers of the stack viz. the datalink, the MAC along with the Topology Control, the network layer and the Application layer leaving the other layers unperturbed. The results and the Performance of the developed protocols are noteworthy and they demonstrate the Potential of the Protocol Stack to perform equally well in similar environmental applications with the exception of certain conditions.