Publication

The use of wireless networks on environments with real-time constrains requires timeliness and dependability guarantees to allow the execution of time-restricted networked operations. The current wireless standards and state-of-the-art solutions pay no or little attention to dependability aspects of communications, which are fundamental to secure any timeliness guarantee. This paper presents an innovative standard-compliant solution, dubbed Mediator Layer, which extends the MAC sublayer with additional components that can be incorporated within networked simulators and implemented in currently available hardware platforms. Thus, the Mediator Layer enhances and complements the services traditionally offered by wireless network standards, providing a set of fundamental abstractions useful for both system design and application programming.