Evaluation of Well-Known Protocol Implementation Techniques for Application in Wireless Networks

Minimizing power consumption is a key requirement for mobile terminals. Here we discuss how power consumption of mobile terminals is influenced by the implementation of the protocol stack in the mobile. We compare the integrated layer processing (ILP) approach with the server model and the activity thread model. ILP is expected to lead to the fastest protocol implementation, and thus to the one with the lowest power consumption. To investigate this, we have implemented the eXample Data Transfer (XDT) Protocol using all three approaches. Our measurements show that the ILP approach can be outperformed by both of the other techniques when the packet error rate of the channel exceeds a threshold of 7%. To cope with dynamic changes we propose an adaptable implementation strategy, concluding that the question of the response to errors on a wireless channel requires careful consideration.