Performance and Energy-Tuning Methodology for Wireless Sensor Networks Using TunableMAC

Energy-efficiency and performance are at the forefront with regards to wireless sensor networks due to the resource-constrained nature of the sensors on the network. Most of the energy in a sensor is consumed by the radio and this therefore creates the need for a more efficient use of the Media Access Control (MAC) layer which controls access to the radio. The Castalia framework which runs on the OMNET++ simulation platform provides a MAC layer protocol - TunableMAC - which is used in this paper for tuning of performance and consumed power. Our goal is to improve as much as possible the performance/energy balance in terms of resources used up by security features, while attempting to preserve the overall lifespan of the wireless sensors. This paper investigates performance parameters for TunableMAC such as energy consumed, latency, throughput and network lifetime based on simulated temperature sensors. A 5-step methodology is proposed that can be helpful for minimizing the impact of denial-of-sleep (DOS) attacks. Hence, the benefit of this research is that it feeds into the development of a novel MAC protocol that is energy-aware and can autonomously guard against energy drain attacks such as DOS attacks.