S-MAC Software: Information and Source Code


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Introduction

S-MAC is an energy-efficient MAC protocol designed for wireless sensor networks. The major design goals are energy efficiency, self-configuration and flexibility to node changes. S-MAC has four major components. First, it enables low-duty-cycle operation of nodes in a multi-hop network. Nodes periodically listen and sleep, and form virtual clusters based on common sleep schedules. Second, S-MAC adopts similar contention schemes as the IEEE 802.11 ad hoc mode. Third, S-MAC avoids overhearing unnecessary traffic to further save energy. Finally, S-MAC supports efficient transmissions of long messages. For details of S-MAC design, please look at S-MAC papers.

We have implemented S-MAC in both TinyOS on the Mote platform and in ns-2, the network simulator.

S-MAC Implementation in TinyOS

S-MAC implementation in TinyOS provides a different communication stack than Berkeley stack. It replaces Berkeley stack from the packet layer and below with a layered architecture. The functions of MAC and the physical layer (PHY) are cleanly separated. S-MAC only replaces the communication stack, and does not affect other components in TinyOS such as timers and senor stacks.
 
Major features of current S-MAC implementation are listed as follows.
Examples of Energy Consumption. Several people have measured the energy consumption on Berkeley motes when S-MAC is used. This example is done by Mohammad Rahimi at UCLA Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS). It measures the timing and energy consumption of S-MAC on Mica2 motes with an oscilloscope.

S-MAC Implementation in NS-2

S-MAC implementation in ns-2 reflects S-MAC design described in S-MAC journal paper. It does not contain some latest features presented in S-MAC implementation in TinyOS, such as link statistics and the global schedule algorithm. Pleaes note that the experiments described in S-MAC papers are based on S-MAC implementation in TinyOS, not ns-2.

To get S-MAC implementation in ns-2, go to this page. S-MAC is in ns-2.26 and later releases. The latest code is in ns-2 CVS. Please note that an important update to the energy model is checked in to ns-2 on June 14, 2005, and you should use a version later than that date. For details, please check this page.


Mailing List

We created a mailing list for S-MAC announcement and discussions, called smac-users. Everyone who is using S-MAC is encouraged to subscribe to the mailing list. To prevent spam, only subscribers can post to the list, but non-subscribers can browse the mail archives.


People

The following people have contributed to S-MAC source code.

Links

MACSS: MAC Protocols Specific for Sensor Networks
I-LENSE: ISI Laboratory for Embedded Networked Sensor Experimentation
CENS: Center for Embedded Networked Sensing
SCADDS Project


Introduction   Download   Papers   FAQ   Mailing List   People   Links

Please send comments to Wei Ye.
Last modified on Sept. 27, 2005.