The Northbound (NB) APIs that SDN controllers provide differ in terms of architecture, syntax, naming convention, data resources, and usage. Using NB APIs to write SDN applications makes each application dependent on the API of a specific controller. To bring NB APIs from different vendors under one umbrella and make programming of SDN applications independent of specific controllers, we propose a unified software defined development framework that we call Umbrella. This paper presents the key components of the software and reports some preliminary results.

The traffic-adaptive medium access protocol (TRAMA) is introduced for energyefficient collision-free channel access in wireless sensor networks. TRAMA reduces energy consumption by ensuring that unicast and broadcast transmissions incur no collisions, and by allowing nodes to assume a low-power, idle state whenever they are not transmitting or receiving. TRAMA assumes that time is slotted and uses a distributed election scheme based on information about traffic at each node to determine which node can transmit at a particular time slot. Using traffic information, TRAMA avoids assigning time slots to nodes with no traffic to send, and also allows nodes to determine when they can switch off to idle mode and not listen to the channel. TRAMA is shown to be fair and correct, in that no idle node is an intended receiver and no receiver suffers collisions. An analytical model to quantify the performance of TRAMA is presented and the results are verified by simulation. The performance of TRAMA is evaluated through extensive simulations using both synthetic-as well as sensor-network scenarios. The results indicate that TRAMA outperforms contention-based protocols (CSMA, 802.11 and S-MAC) and also static scheduled-access protocols (NAMA) with significant energy savings.

Abstract. The traffic-adaptive medium access protocol (TRAMA) is introduced for energyefficient collision-free channel access in wireless sensor networks. TRAMA reduces energy consumption by ensuring that unicast and broadcast transmissions incur no collisions, and by allowing nodes to assume a low-power, idle state whenever they are not transmitting or receiving. TRAMA assumes that time is slotted and uses a distributed election scheme based on information about traffic at each node to determine which node can transmit at a particular time slot. Using traffic information, TRAMA avoids assigning time slots to nodes with no traffic to send, and also allows nodes to determine when they can switch off to idle mode and not listen to the channel. TRAMA is shown to be fair and correct, in that no idle node is an intended receiver and no receiver suffers collisions. An analytical model to quantify the performance of TRAMA is presented and the results are verified by simulation. The performance of TRAMA is evaluated through extensive simulations using both synthetic-as well as sensor-network scenarios. The results indicate that TRAMA outperforms contention-based protocols (CSMA, 802.11 and S-MAC) and also static scheduled-access protocols (NAMA) with significant energy savings.

Communication networks, whether they are wired or wireless, have traditionally been assumed to be connected at least most of the time. However, emerging applications such as emergency response, special operations, smart environments, VANETs, etc. coupled with node heterogeneity and volatile links (e.g. due to wireless propagation phenomena and node mobility) will likely change the typical conditions under which networks operate. In fact, in such scenarios, networks may be mostly disconnected, i.e., most of the time, end-to-end paths connecting every node pair do not exist. To cope with frequent, long-lived disconnections, opportunistic routing techniques have been proposed in which, at every hop, a node decides whether it should forward or store-and-carry a message. Despite a growing number of such proposals, there still exists little consensus on the most suitable routing algorithm(s) in this context. One of the reasons is the large diversity of emerging wireless applications and networks exhibiting such ''episodic'' connectivity. These networks often have very different characteristics and requirements, making it very difficult, if not impossible, to design a routing solution that fits all. In this paper, we first break up existing routing strategies into a small number of common and tunable routing modules (e.g. message replication, coding, etc.), and then show how and when a given routing module should be used, depending on the set of network characteristics exhibited by the wireless application. We further attempt to create a taxonomy for intermittently connected networks. We try to identify generic network characteristics that are relevant to the routing process (e.g., network density, node heterogeneity, mobility patterns) and dissect different ''challenged'' wireless networks or applications based on these characteristics. Our goal is to identify a set of useful design guidelines that will enable one to choose an appropriate routing protocol for the application or network in hand. Finally, to demonstrate the utility of our approach, we take up some case studies of challenged wireless networks, and validate some of our routing design principles using simulations.

Ad HOC Networks are gaining popu1arit.y as a result of advances in smaller, more versatile and powerful mobile comput,ing devices. The dist,inguishing feat,ure of these networks is the universal mobility of all host.s. This requires re-engineering of basic nebwork services including reliable multicast, communication.This paper considers t,he special case of highly mobile fast,-moving ad hoc net.works and argues that, for such networks, t,raditional multicast approaches are not appropriat,e. Flooding is suggested as a possible alt,ernative for reliable multicast and simulation results are used t,o illust.rate it.s effects. The experimental results also demonstrate a rather interest,ing outcome that even flooding is insufficient. for reliable multicast in ad hoc networks when mobility is very high. Some alternative, more persistent variations of flooding are sketched out.