[Tinyos-help] CC2420 radio stack

[Antonis Lambrou]

I am currently conducting research for MAC protocols designed for Wireless Sensor Networks and I would appreciate some guidance from tinyos-help.

In your FAQ you have the following answer for the MAC design:

"Support for the CC2420 radio was introduced in TinyOS 1.1.7. The CC2420 uses B-MAC. However, the CC2420 radio does not have the Low Power Listening functionality; it does have the MacControl and MacBackoff interfaces but, again, the underlying functionality is not implemented."

If Low Power Listening is not implemented does that mean that the radio is listening constantly for incoming packets? What are the reasons for not implementing LPL on the CC2420 radio stack? 

Where can I find more documentation on the design for the CC2420 radio stack on TinyOS? I have read so far the paper "Versatile Low Power Media Access for Wireless Sensor Networks", which describes the B-MAC protocol, but as I understand the protocol is slightly changed on the CC2420 radio stack.

Thank you,

Antonis.Lambrou at ncl.ac.uk