[Tinyos-devel] IEEE 802.15.4 Working Group formation

[Jan Hauer]

We would like to announce the formation of a IEEE 802.15.4 (15.4)
TinyOS 2 Working Group. The goals of the 15.4 Working Group are:

* to develop and maintain a platform-independent, standard-compliant
implementation of the IEEE 802.15.4-2006 MAC,
* to make the implementation available on (appropriate) TinyOS 2
platforms and TOSSIM,
* to align the MAC interfaces with the next-higher layers in TinyOS 2
(AM, prospective ZigBee NWK, 6lowPAN), and
* to provide mechanism to integrate enhancements / variants / add-ons
to the MAC protocol (e.g. QoS, traffic differentiation mechanisms,
frequency agility)

More details can be found at the end of this email, on the tinyos
working group page [1] and on our wiki [2]. Please note that in
parallel to the 15.4 working group a TinyOS ZigBee Working Group [3]
has also been formed. Both WGs are looking for potential contributors
that wish to actively participate in the implementation and validation
of the protocols - feel free to contact the WG chairs.

Jan (chair of the TinyOS 15.4 Working Group)


[1]  http://tinyos.net/scoop/special/working_group_tinyos_154
[2]  http://tinyos.stanford.edu:8000/15.4_WG
[3]  http://tinyos.net/scoop/special/working_group_zigbee

=== TinyOS 2 Working Group ===

Charter:  The goals of the 15.4 WG are
* to develop and maintain a platform-independent, standard-compliant
implementation of the IEEE 802.15.4-2006 MAC
* to make the implementation available on (appropriate) TinyOS 2
platforms and TOSSIM
* to align the MAC interfaces with the next-higher layers in TinyOS 2
(AM, prospective ZigBee NWK, 6lowPAN)
* to provide mechanism to integrate enhancements / variants / add-ons
to the MAC protocol (e.g. QoS, traffic differentiation mechanisms,
frequency agility and coexistence)

The basis for the implementation is the code located in:
tinyos-2.x/tos/lib/mac/tkn154 (TinyOS 2 CVS)

Goals for 2009:
* define radio driver interfaces (interfaces that a radio chip
abstraction must provide to the MAC),
* finish the baseline implementation (including (non)beacon-enabled
mode, but without GTS / security),
* start validation through interoperability tests with certified 15.4
MAC protocols (e.g. TIMAC),
* improve code documentation, extend example applications, create a
documentation Wiki,
* make the implementation available in TOSSIM,
* start implementing security / GTS,
* align MAC interfaces with next higher layers in TinyOS 2.

Members:
Jan-Hinrich Hauer (Working Group Chair, Technical University Berlin)
Vlado Handziski (Technical University Berlin)
Martin Turon (Crossbow Technology, Inc.)
JeongGil (John) Ko (Johns Hopkins University)
Antonio Romano (Retis Lab. School of Advanced Study Sant'Anna)
Omar Cheikhrouhou (National School of Engineers, University of Sfax)
Nuno Alexandre Magalhães Pereira (Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto)
Ricardo Augusto Severino (Polytechnic Institute of Porto)

Group Membership:
If you'd like to join the WG, you should send an email to the 15.4 WG
chair, who will forward the message to all current members for
discussion. Admittance is based on group consensus. When consensus is
reached, a member of the WG will forward the group's decision to you.
General considerations include expected degree of participation, prior
work, and area of expertise with respect to the rest of the WG.

Overlap and Interactions:
A platform-independent 15.4 MAC implementation will require (a) a set
of radio interfaces provided by the radio chip abstraction and (b)
alarms/timers with symbol resolution and conforming with the accuracy
requirements of the standard. Radio/Timer chip abstractions are
defined by the core WG, thus there will be interaction with the core
WG. In addition, there will be interaction with prospective ZigBee WG
and core WG on aligning the MAC interfaces with the AM and ZigBee NWK
layer.