Wireless Media Access Issues in Internet of Things

What is Internet of Things (IoT)?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of physical objects (sometimes known as "things") that are implanted with sensors, software, and other technologies in order to connect and exchange data with other devices and via the Internet.

The convergence of many technologies, such as real-time analytics, machine learning, ubiquitous computing, commodity sensors, and embedded systems, has resulted in the evolution of things. The Internet of Things is enabled by traditional domains like embedded systems, wireless sensor networks, control systems, automation (including home and building automation), etc.

IoT is most closely associated with goods that support one or more common ecosystems and can be controlled by ecosystem-related devices like smartphones and smart speakers. IoT can also be used in healthcare. However, there are several serious concerns about IoT's potential risks, particularly in the areas of privacy and security, and as a response, industry and government attempts to address these concerns, including the event of international standards, have begun.

IoT can help with smarter home and city control via mobile phones. It improves security and provides personal safety. But at the same time, hackers may gain access to the system, steal personal information, and be misused. They rely heavily on the Internet and cannot function efficiently without it. IoT apps can provide personal help by alerting you to your routine plans. A broad technology to IoT framework is challenging to develop, build, manage, and enable.

Medium Access Control (MAC)

The MAC protocol is critical in the IoT since it coordinates data transport among various IoT devices. However, to achieve high network throughput, low energy consumption, and low latency, various issues at the MAC layer must be overcome. In addition, when it comes to communicating over a wireless medium, there is always a risk of interference from other wireless communication technologies already in use.

Different Mobile Stations (MS) are connected to a transmitter/receiver that communicates with other nodes over a shared channel. The MAC sublayer provides addressing and channel access control technologies in a multiple access network that allow several terminals or network nodes to communicate over a shared medium, such as Ethernet.

It is more difficult for the MAC design than for wireline networks with this form of communication. The Half-Duplex operation, Time-Varying Channel, and Burst Channel Errors are the most relevant difficulties here. In addition, receiving data while the transmitter transmits data is complex in wireless transmission because a significant portion of signal energy is wasted during transmission.

As a result, there is a collision problem, and reducing collisions should be the primary focus. For radio signal propagation, there are three mechanisms: they are reflection, diffraction and scattering. The signal is time-warped while being sent by the node, and this is known as multipath propagation.

Burst channel errors occur when the start and last symbols in a communication channel are incorrect, and there is no indication of a contiguous subsequence of corrected received symbols. In addition, when time-varying channels are employed, signal intensities are introduced, which leads to transmission mistakes.