Search results for "programmable MAC"
showing 8 items of 8 documents
Wireless MAC processors: programming MAC protocols on commodity hardware
2012
Programmable wireless platforms aim at responding to the quest for wireless access flexibility and adaptability. This paper introduces the notion of wireless MAC processors. Instead of implementing a specific MAC protocol stack, Wireless MAC processors do support a set of Medium Access Control “commands” which can be run-time composed (programmed) through software-defined state machines, thus providing the desired MAC protocol operation. We clearly distinguish from related work in this area as, unlike other works which rely on dedicated DSPs or programmable hardware platforms, we experimentally prove the feasibility of the wireless MAC processor concept over ultra-cheap commodity WLAN hardw…
MAC–Engine: a new architecture for executing MAC algorithms on commodity WiFi hardware
2011
In this demo, we prove that the flexibility supported by off–the–shelf IEEE 802.11 hardware can be significantly ex- tended if we move the control of the MAC programming interface from the driver to the firmware, i.e. from the host CPU to the card CPU. To this purpose, we introduce the concept of MAC–Engine, that is an executor of Pro- grammable Finite State Machines (PFSM) implemented at the firmware level: we show how the card itself can support different protocol logics thanks to PFSM bytecode repre- sentations that can be dynamically injected inside the card memory at run-time without incurring in down time issues or network disconnect events. We provide different PFSM examples in order…
One size hardly fits all
2013
This paper casts recent accomplishments in the field of Wireless MAC programmability into the emerging Software Defined Networking perspective. We argue that an abstract (but formal) description of the MAC protocol logic in terms of extensible finite state machines appears a convenient and viable data-plane programming compromise for modeling and deploying realistic MAC protocol logics. Our approach is shown to comply with existing control frameworks, and entails the ability to dynamically change the MAC protocol operation based on context and scenario conditions; in essence, move from the traditional idea of "one-size-fits-all" MAC protocol stack to the innovative paradigm of opportunistic…
MAClets: Active MAC Protocols over hard-coded devices
2012
We introduce MAClets, software programs uploaded and executed on-demand over wireless cards, and devised to change the card's real-time medium access control operation. MAClets permit seamless reconfiguration of the MAC stack, so as to adapt it to mutated context and spectrum conditions and perform tailored performance optimizations hardly accountable by an once-for-all protocol stack design. Following traditional active networking principles, MAClets can be directly conveyed within data packets and executed on hard-coded devices acting as virtual MAC machines. Indeed, rather than executing a pre-defined protocol, we envision a new architecture for wireless cards based on a protocol interpr…
Design, Implementation and Experimental Evaluation of a Wireless MAC Processor over commercial WIFI cards
2014
In this thesis we face the problem of wireless network programmability as a solution for coping with context-dependent optimizations, moving from one-for-all standard solutions to the concept of programmable wireless interfaces. Although the wireless research and academic community has proposed interesting platforms (e.g. based on Software Defined Radio) for pushing forward dynamic reprogrammability of devices, we argue that it is important to identify a tradeoff between programmability space and usability of the programmable interface. In this direction, we introduce the concept of Wireless MAC Processor and developed a running prototype over an ultra-cheap wireless card. Wireless MAC proc…
On the Flexibility of the IEEE 802.11 Technology: Challenges and Directions
2011
The original 802.11 standard, which is the de-facto standard for contention-based wireless data networks, has shown to give poor performance or to be scarcely suitable for dealing with new PHY-layer technologies, networking scenarios, or service contexts, thus boosting the proliferation of projects, technical solutions and dedicated task groups for extending the basic protocol operations. In this paper, starting from the evolution analysis of current 802.11 standard and de- vices, we propose an architectural solution for making the medium access protocol programmable. Our basic idea, pursued within the FP7 EU Project FLAVIA [1], started in July 2010, is changing the role of the wireless net…
Wireless card virtualization: from virtual NICs to virtual MAC machines
2012
Virtualization has been a hot topic in computer science this last 10 years, and a key enabler to the recent advances. By technically enabling the Cloud paradigm, virtualization is becoming an inspiring source for the whole IT industry. At the same moment the virtualization of commodity PC was envisioned, Software Defined Radio started as a huge promise of efficient wireless transmission hardware. Unfortunately, the pace of innovation has still to reach the one of the PC virtualization. Yet, there is a another option. The current state of the art of hardware and software of wireless adapter in standard PC reveals interesting capabilities in terms of unused wireless capacity, processing power…
Making IEEE 802.11 wireless access programmable
2013
In this paper, we present a modular Layer 2 architecture which makes wireless access in {IEEE}~802.11 networks programmable and thus opens the door for broader range of enhancements. We show the power of the proposed architecture by presenting a number of innovative solutions for infrastructure, direct links and mesh cases. Early prototyping results are publicly available and can be used to develop solutions not so strictly bounded by legacy access rules, to quicker and more accurately meet evolving user demands.