Search

The Internet of Things (IoT) has recently received a great deal of research interest due to its broad range of applications. One of the important layers in IoT applications is known as edge computing where resource-constrained devices at the edge form a simple type of network to sense required data. A more powerful edge device is responsible for collecting all sensed data to be transferred to the upper layers. A critical focus is therefore placed on maximum rate of data collection, requiring effective and intelligent solutions to coordinate the channel access of the devices. Medium access control (MAC) protocols take this responsibility as their design mission. Carrier-sense multiple access (CSMA) has been a baseline MAC scheme and many previous traditional networks utilized a CSMA-based solution. The motivation of this paper is to study the performance of a typical network at the edge through the CSMA theme. A practical network is constructed to assess the channel throughput performance via a commercially available radio transceiver. The practical performance observations indicate the suitability of the proposed CSMA-based solution.

In recent years, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have attracted rising interest due to their significant role in Internet of Things (IoT) applications. One of the most important layers of the IoT is known as edge computing, and WSNs typically act as microcontroller-driven edge objects. It is a well-known phenomenon that objects composing a WSN are resource-constrained devices in terms of energy. This paper aims to revisit the traditional ALOHA protocol as a medium-access control with the purpose of creating a solar-powered energy source. A simple network of 6 objects is created to test the performance of the ALOHA protocol in terms of its lifetime. The performance results reveal that the network lifetime can be increased by controlling the parameters, such as transmission power level and packet length.