Breaking Layer 2: A New Architecture for Programmable Wireless Interfaces

This paper introduces a new architecture for programmable wireless interfaces, aiming at responding to the emerging request of wireless access flexibility and adaptability. Instead of implementing a specific MAC protocol stack, the proposed architecture supports a set of programmable services, devised to customize the wireless access operations according to specific network and application scenarios. The services are composed by means of simpler functions, which in turns work on system primitives (i.e. elementary non-programmable functionalities, natively provided by the system) dealing with the physical transmission and reception of the frames. Our approach significantly differs from software-radio solutions, since we argue that most practical needs for promptly adapting and customizing network features and performance may be accomplished by means of advanced and programmable interfaces exposed at a layer higher than the physical one (PHY). This choice does not rule out the possibility of using (i.e. dynamically selecting) advanced PHY mechanisms provided, as elementary primitives, by the interface manufacturers.