A cross-layer adaptive mechanism for low-power wireless personal area networks

Abstract This article presents a novel method providing reliable data links for low-power wireless personal area networks. The method implements a dynamic frame formation using hamming-codes. The formation process is made in an optimum way to obtain high throughput while questioning channel condition in the network. A cross-layer interaction is utilized to get noise resilient link layer operations. This interaction is achieved by querying the value of bit error rate from the physical layer. The method is adapted to be used in low-power and low-rate wireless networks based on IEEE 802.15.4 protocol. Performance metrics are evaluated through extensive Monte Carlo simulations and its success is compared to IEEE 802.15.4 and IEEE 802.15.4g protocol outputs. The simulations are made over various communication types using high traffic loads. In all our experiments, the proposed method substantially increases communication throughput, reduces energy consumption, and increases network life-time.