The applications of ad hoc wireless networks envisaged in this thesis are those related to issues of disaster management, rehabilitation, security and defense. The circumstances in such situations warrants the deployment of a quick ad hoc network that is simple and uses minimum resoures to get started. The communication within the network has to be reliable and it has to be simple so that it can be deployed in extremely compex topography and other climatic conditions. Since large batteries cannot be assumed to be at our disposal for the sake of communication at all the times, energy conservation by way of energy efficient schemes is a paramount issue. Ad hoc wireless networks are broadcast networks by nature. For all the communications, transmissions by the nodes are broadcast into the air. A networkwide broadcast is distinguished from this. When a node wants its data to reach all the other nodes in the network then it initiates a networkwide broadcast. There may be nodes in the network that are not directly reachable by the node that wants to do a networkwide broadcast. Networkwide broadcast is used by ad hoc wireless networks for routing protocols, updating of network status information, network organization and multicasting. Most importantly, the applications envisaged out of this thesis need all their data communication as networkwide broadcast alone. In an ad hoc wireless network, a networkwide broadcast is usually effected by the flooding mechanism, which is inherently inefficient, since all the nodes in the network have to transmit the same information. It is possible to exploit the topology of the network in such a way, that only a few of the nodes need to transmit the information to complete a networkwide broadcast. The thesis deals with a new scheme for a networkwide broadcast implemented in the media access control (MAC) layer of an ad hoc wireless network. The new scheme is developed by extending the concept of handshaking signals used in unicast, to the networkwide broadcast scenario. In the case of unicast, where there is an intended recipient, handshaking is done for reliability and happens through the RTS and CTS packets. This idea is extended to suit the networkwide broadcast scenario and the consequences are discussed in detail in the thesis. Intuitively, adding more packets for handshaking increases the number of bytes transmitted. But the results obtained are interesting, since the network transmits fewer bytes per networkwide broadcast, on an average, with the newly proposed scheme. A comparison is done with the implementation of simple flooding following the IEEE 802.11 standard. These results have been demonstrated by simulations. The average improvement is nearly 2.5 times reduction in the number of bytes transmitted per networkwide broadcast. The performance of a networkwide broadcast in an ad hoc wireless network is usually affected badly by losses due to transmssion error in the medium. In a medium with errors, persistence improves reliability. This reliability helps in bringing robustness. The advantage of the proposed scheme is that it uses the idea of persistence to ensure the networkwide broadcast reachabilityto be almost independent of transmission error rate. The MAC layer ensures that the broadcast packet reaches each and every node that is connected to the node that initiates the etworkwide broadcast. The effects of collision are also overcome. Our simulations establish that the scheme works correctly, and gives good performance.

In the early stages of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), low data rate traffic patterns are assumed as applications have a single purpose with simple sensing task and data packets are generated at a rate of minutes or hours. As such, most of the proposed communication protocols focus on energy efficiency rather than high throughput. Emerging high data rate applications motivate bulk data transfer protocols to achieve high throughput. The basic idea is to enable nodes to transmit a sequence of packets in burst once they obtain a medium. However, due to the low-power, low-cost nature, the transceiver used in wireless sensor networks is prone to packet loss. Especially when the transmitters are mobile, packet loss becomes worse. To reduce the energy expenditure caused by packet loss and retransmission, a burst transmission scheme is required that can adapt to the link dynamics and estimate the number of packets to transmit in burst. As the mobile node is moving within the network, it cannot always maintain a stable link with one specific stationary node. When link deterioration is constantly detected, the mobile node has to initiate a handover process to seamlessly transfer the communication to a new relay node before the current link breaks. For this reason, it is vital for a mobile node to (1) determine whether a fluctuation in link quality eventually results in a disconnection, (2) foresee potential disconnection well ahead of time and establish an alternative link before the disconnection occurs, and (3) seamlessly transfer communication to the new link. In this dissertation, we focus on dealing with burst transmission and handover issues in low power mobile wireless sensor networks. To this end, we begin with designing a novel mobility enabled testing framework as the evaluation testbed for all our remaining studies. We then perform an empirical study to investigate the link characteristics in mobile environments. Using these observations as guidelines, we propose three algorithms related to mobility that will improve network performance in terms of latency and throughput: i) Mobility Enabled Testing Framework (MobiLab). Considering the high fluctuation of link quality during mobility, protocols supporting mobile wireless sensor nodes should be rigorously tested to ensure that they produce predictable outcomes before actual deployment. Furthermore, considering the typical size of wireless sensor networks and the number of parameters that can be configured or tuned, conducting repeated and reproducible experiments can be both time consuming and costly. The conventional method for evaluating the performance of different protocols and algorithms under different network configurations is to change the source code and reprogram the testbed, which requires considerable effort. To this end, we present a mobility enabled testbed for carrying out repeated and reproducible experiments, independent of the application or protocol types which should be tested. The testbed consists of, among others, a server side control station and a client side traffic ow controller which coordinates inter- and intra-experiment activities. ii) Adaptive Burst Transmission Scheme for Dynamic Environment. Emerging high data rate applications motivate bulk data transfer protocol to achieve high throughput. The basic idea is to enable nodes to transmit a sequence of packets in burst once they obtain a medium. Due to the low-power and low-cost nature, the transceiver used in wireless sensor networks is prone to packet loss. When the transmitter is mobile, packet loss becomes even worse. The existing bulk data transfer protocols are not energy efficient since they keep their radios on even while a large number of consecutive packet losses occur. To address this challenge, we propose an adaptive burst transmission scheme (ABTS). In the design of the ABTS, we estimate the expected duration in which the quality of a specific link remains stable using the conditional distribution function of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of received acknowledgment packets. We exploit the expected duration to determine the number of packets to transmit in burst and the duration of the sleeping period. iii) Kalman Filter Based Handover Triggering Algorithm (KMF). Maintaining a stable link in mobile wireless sensor network is challenging. In the design of the KMF, we utilized combined link quality metrics in physical and link layers, such as Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and packet success rate (PSR), to estimate link quality fluctuation online. Then Kalman filter is adopted to predict link dynamics ahead of time. If a predicted link quality fulfills handover trigger criterion, a handover process will be initiated to discover alternative relay nodes and establish a new link before the disconnection occurs. iv) Mobile Sender Initiated MAC Protocol (MSI-MAC). In cellular networks, mobile stations are always associated with the nearest base station through intra- and inter-cellular handover. The underlying process is that the quality of an established link is continually evaluated and handover decisions are made by resource rich base stations. In wireless sensor networks, should a seamless handover be carried out, the task has to be accomplished by energy-constraint, resource-limited, and low-power wireless sensor nodes in a distributed manner. To this end, we present MSI-MAC, a mobile sender initiated MAC protocol to enable seamless handover.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is widely adopted across various fields due to its flexibility and low cost. Energy-harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are becoming a building block of many IoT applications and provide a perpetual source of energy to power energy-constrained IoT devices. However, the dynamic and stochastic nature of the available harvested energy drives the need for adaptive energy management solutions. Duty cycling is among the most prominent adaptive approaches that help consolidate the effort of energy management solutions at the routing and application layers to ensure energy sustainability and, hence, continuous network operation.  The IEEE 802.15.4 standard defines the physical layer and the Medium Access Control (MAC) sub-layer of low-data-rate wireless devices with limited energy consumption requirements. The MAC sub-layer’s functionalities include the scheduling of the duty cycle of individual devices. However, the scheduling of the duty cycle is left open to the industry. Various computational mechanisms are used to compute the duty cycle of IoT nodes to ensure optimal performance in energy sustainability and Quality of Service (QoS). Reinforcement Learning (RL) is the most employed mechanism in this context.  The literature depicts various RL-based solutions to adjust the duty cycle of IoT devices to adapt to changes in the IoT environment. However, these solutions are usually tailored to specific scenarios or focus mainly on one aspect of the problem, namely QoS performance or energy limitation. This work proposes a generic adaptive duty cycling solution and evaluates its performance under different energy generation and traffic conditions. Moreover, it emphasizes the energy sustainability aspect while taking the QoS performance into account.  While different approaches exist to achieve energy sustainability, Energy Neutral Operation (ENO)-based solutions provide the most prominent approach to ensure energy-sustainable performance. Nevertheless, these approaches do not necessarily guarantee optimal performance in QoS. This work adopts a Markov Decision Process (MDP) model from the literature that aims to minimize the distance from energy neutrality given the energy harvesting and ENO conditions. We introduce QoS penalties to the reward formulation to improve QoS performance.  We start by examining the performance in QoS against the benchmarking solution. Then, we analyze the performance using different energy harvesting and consumption profiles to further assess QoS performance and determine if energy sustainability is still maintained under different conditions. The results prove more efficient utilization of harvested energy when available in abundance. However, one limitation to our solution occurs when energy demand is high, or harvested energy is scarce. In such cases, we observe degradation in QoS due to IoT nodes adopting a low-duty cycle to avoid energy depletion. We further study the effect this limitation has on the solution's scalability. We also attempt to address this problem by assessing the performance using a routing solution that balances load distribution and, hence, energy demand across the network.

The support of multimedia traffic over IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks (WLANs) has recently received considerable attention. This dissertation has proposed a new framework that provides efficient channel access, service differentiation and statistical QoS guarantees in the enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) protocol of IEEE 802.11e. In the first part of the dissertation, the new framework to provide QoS support in IEEE 802.11e is presented. The framework uses three independent components, namely, a core MAC layer, a scheduler, and an admission control. The core MAC layer concentrates on the channel access mechanism to improve the overall system efficiency. The scheduler provides service differentiation according to the weights assigned to each Access Category (AC). The admission control provides statistical QoS guarantees. The core MAC layer developed in this dissertation employs a P-Persistent based MAC protocol. A weight-based fair scheduler to obtain throughput service differentiation at each node has been used. In wireless LANs (WLANs), the MAC protocol is the main element that determines the efficiency of sharing the limited communication bandwidth of the wireless channel. In the second part of the dissertation, analytical Markov chain models for the P-Persistent 802.11 MAC protocol under unsaturated load conditions with heterogeneous loads are developed. The Markov models provide closed-form formulas for calculating the packet service time, the packet end-to-end delay, and the channel capacity in the unsaturated load conditions. The accuracy of the models has been validated by extensive NS2 simulation tests and the models are shown to give accurate results. In the final part of the dissertation, the admission control mechanism is developed and evaluated. The analytical model for P-Persistent 802.11 is used to develop a measurement-assisted model-based admission control. The proposed admission control mechanism uses delay as an admission criterion. Both distributed and centralized admission control schemes are developed and the performance results show that both schemes perform very efficiently in providing the QoS guarantees. Since the distributed admission scheme control does not have a complete state information of the WLAN, its performance is generally inferior to the centralized admission control scheme. The detailed performance results using the NS2 simulator have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed framework. Compared to 802.11e EDCA, the scheduler consistently achieved the desired throughput differentiation and easy tuning. The core MAC layer achieved better delays in terms of channel access, average packet service time and end-to-end delay. It also achieved higher system throughput than EDCA for any given service differentiation ratio. The admission control provided the desired statistical QoS guarantees.

In order to efficiently utilize the scarce wireless resource as well as keep up with the ever-increasing demand for Quality-of-Service (QoS) of multimedia applications, wireless networks are undergoing rapid development and dramatic changes in the underlying technologies and protocols. The Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol, which coordinates the channel access and data transmission of wireless stations, plays a pivotal role in wireless networks. Performance modelling and analysis has been and continues to be of great theoretical and practical importance in the design and development of wireless networks. This research is devoted to developing efficient and cost-effective analytical tools for the performance analysis and enhancement of MAC protocols in Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) under heterogeneous multimedia traffic. To support the MAC-layer QoS in WLANs, the IEEE 802.11e Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) protocol has proposed three QoS differentiation schemes in terms of Arbitrary Inter-Frame Space (AIFS), Contention Window (CW), and Transmission Opportunity (TXOP). This research starts with the development of new analytical models for the TXOP scheme specified in the EDCA protocol under Poisson traffic. A dynamic TXOP scheme is then proposed to adjust the TXOP limits according to the status of the transmission queue. Theoretical analysis and simulation experiments show that the proposed dynamic scheme largely improves the performance of TXOP. To evaluate the TXOP scheme in the presence of ii heterogeneous traffic, a versatile analytical model is developed to capture the traffic heterogeneity and model the features of burst transmission. The performance results highlight the importance of taking into account the heterogeneous traffic for the accurate evaluation of the TXOP scheme in wireless multimedia networks. To obtain a thorough and deep understanding of the performance attributes of the EDCA protocol, a comprehensive analytical model is then proposed to accommodate the integration of the three QoS schemes of EDCA in terms of AIFS, CW, and TXOP under Poisson traffic. The performance results show that the TXOP scheme can not only support service differentiation but also improve the network performance, whereas the AIFS and CW schemes provide QoS differentiation only. Moreover, the results demonstrate that the MAC buffer size has considerable impact on the QoS performance of EDCA under Poisson traffic. To investigate the performance of EDCA in wireless multimedia networks, an analytical model is further developed for EDCA under heterogeneous traffic. The performance results demonstrate the significant effects of heterogeneous traffic on the total delay and frame losses of EDCA with different buffer sizes. Finally, an efficient admission control scheme is presented for the IEEE 802.11e WLANs based on analytical modelling and a game-theoretical approach. The admission control scheme can maintain the system operation at an optimal point where the utility of the Access Point (AP) is maximized with the QoS constraints of various users.

Au cours des dernières années, différents travaux de recherche ont été consacrés à l’étude et au développement des solutions de type réseau de capteurs sans fil. Ces travaux sont une réponse à l’augmentation du nombre d’objets connectés dans le monde avec le développement de l’internet des objets. La consommation d’énergie dans les réseaux de capteurs représente un des domaines les plus étudiés. Les communications dans les réseaux de capteurs représentent une part importante de leur consommation. Afin de réduire la consommation des communications dans les réseaux de capteurs, différents niveaux d’optimisation sont possibles. Dans ce contexte, différents travaux de recherches visant à réduire la consommation des émetteurs-récepteurs, grâce à des architectures innovantes, ont été menés à l’IM2NP. Beaucoup de ces travaux ont été consacrés aux radios impulsionnelles Ultra-Large Bande (ULB). En outre, les protocoles d’accès aux canaux de communications dans les réseaux de capteurs sont également importants quant à l’optimisation de leurs consommations. Les travaux de recherches proposés dans ce manuscrit, basés sur les travaux sur les radios impulsionnelles ULB réalisés au sein de l’IM2NP, proposent une optimisation de la consommation des réseaux de capteurs sur deux niveaux. Tout d’abord, un protocole asynchrone à base de radio de réveil d’accès au canal de communication adapté aux communications ULB est proposé ainsi que son étude énergétique. Suite à l'étude du protocole asynchrone proposé, la conception d’un récepteur de réveil semi-passif et d’un générateur d’impulsion ULB sous-GHz est abordée, et leurs performances en termes d’efficacité énergétique discutées. / In recent years, research has been devoted to the study and development of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). These research are a response to the increase of the connected objet number in the world with development of smartphones and Internet of things (IoT). Energy consumption in sensor networks is one of the most studied areas. In fact, the optimization of the consumption of the elements making up the sensor networks allows a reduction in the costs associated with their installation, operation and maintenance. Communications in sensor networks represent an important part of their power consumption. In order to reduce the consumption of communications in sensor networks, different levels of optimization are possible. In this context, various IM2NP research projects aimed at reducing transceiver consumption through innovative design were carried out. Much of this work has been devoted to Impulsionnal Radio Ultra-Wide Band (IR-UWB). Moreover, MAC protocols used to manage the communication channel access in wireless sensor networks are also important in optimizing their consumption. The research work proposed in this manuscript, based on the work on impulse radios UWB carried out within the IM2NP, propose an optimization of the consumption of sensor networks on two levels. Firstly, an asynchronous MAC protocol based on radio wake-up radio suitable for UWB communications is proposed as well as its energy study. Following the study of the proposed asynchronous protocol, the design of a low power semi-passive wake-up receiver (WuRx) and a UWB sub-GHz impulse generator is presented and their performance in terms of energy efficiency discussed.

Les réseaux de capteurs sans fil qui conviennent pour vaste domaine d’applications, constituent une solution prometteuse qui répond à toute exigence de surveillance continue. L’autonomie énergétique des nœuds constitue un facteur de vulnérabilité qui influe directement leur longévité et la capacité du réseau à assurer longuement la couverture d’une zone géographique d’intérêt. La gestion de consommation énergétique représente la seule approche pour accroître la durée de vie de ces réseaux et leur conférer une autonomie raisonnable. Des solutions logicielles proposées à travers les protocoles MAC, apportent des améliorations significatives à la minimisation de la dépense énergétique des nœuds. Elles permettent de réduire les périodes d’écoute du canal qui, représente l’opération la plus coûteuse en termes d’énergie dans le fonctionnement des nœuds de capteurs sans fil. Néanmoins, se limiter à ces solutions n’est pas suffisant pour garantir une longévité acceptable. La seule méthode pour optimiser la conservation d’énergie dans les RCSFs est de mettre chaque nœud constamment en mode faible puissance et d’utiliser un mécanisme de télé-réveil à travers des signaux de réveil. Cela implique, l’utilisation de circuits de réveil de faible consommation qui assurent la surveillance de canal et qui déclenchent le réveil des nœuds uniquement à chaque fois qu’événement d’intérêt se produit. Dans ce contexte, une quantité importante de travaux ont proposés l’utilisation d’un mécanisme d’adressage (adresses MAC ou d’autres informations binaires), pour permettre aux nœuds non concernés de retourner rapidement dans son état de sommeil. Cette démarche est intéressante, mais implique toutefois une dépense énergétique non négligeable, liée à la réception et au traitement des informations d’adresse au niveau de tous les nœuds. La solution la plus efficace énergétiquement serait l’utilisation d’une autre forme d’adresse. Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le contexte de minimisation de la consommation énergétique des RCSFs par la mise en œuvre d’un adressage qui permet aux nœuds de recevoir et de traiter les signaux de réveil, sans allumer leur module de communication principal. Il s’agit pour nous de supprimer la dépense énergétique liée à l’allumage du module RF et à la réception de paquets d’adresse, en se tournant vers l’exploitation de la durée des signaux de réveils. Notre solution se repose sur les caractéristiques matérielles du microcontrôleur (IRQ, Timer/Counter) des nœuds de capteurs. Elle permet de réduire les complexités liées aux conditionnements des signaux de réveils. Notre solution est implémentée sur un réseau de petite taille. Elle est évaluée expérimentalement et ses performances énergétiques sont comparées à celles d’un schéma classique de télé-réveil sans mécanisme d’adressage et à celles d’un schéma classique basé sur le duty-cycling. / Wireless sensor networks that are suitable for a wide range of applications, represent a promising solution that meets any requirement for continuous monitoring. The energy autonomy of sensor nodes constitutes a vulnerability factor that directly affects their longevity and the capacity of the network to ensure long coverage of the geographical area of interest. Energy consumption management is the only way to increase the lifespan of these networks and to give them a reasonable autonomy. Software solutions proposed through MAC protocols, bring significant improvements to the minimization of the energy expenditure of sensor nodes. They reduce the idle-listening periods which represents the most expensive operation in terms of energy, in the operation of the wireless sensor nodes. However, Focusing lonely on these solutions is not enough to guarantee acceptable longevity. The only way to optimize energy conservation in the WSN is to constantly put each node in low power mode and use a wakeup mechanism through wake-up signals. This involves the use of low-power wake-up circuits that provide channel monitoring, and trigger node wake-up only whenever event of interest occurs. In this context, a significant amount of work has proposed the use of an addressing mechanism (MAC addresses or other binary informations), to allow non-concerned nodes to quickly return to their sleep state. This approach is interesting, but involves a significant energy expenditure, related to address information’s reception and processing at all nodes. The most energy efficient solution would be the use of another type of address. This thesis is part of the context of minimizing the energy consumption of the WSN, using an addressing system that allows sensor nodes to receive and process the wake-up signals, without turning on their main communication module. It is to eliminate the energy expenditure related to the RF module’s activation and the reception of address packets, by exploiting wakeup signals duration. Our solution is based on the hardware characteristics of the microcontroller (IRQ, Timer/Counter) of sensor nodes. It reduces the complexities related to wakeup signals conditioning. Our solution is implemented on a small network. Its evaluations were done experimentally and its energy performance is compared to a conventional wake-up mechanism without addressing,and a conventional scheme based on duty-cycling.

The cognitive radio-based wireless networks have been proposed as a promising technology to improve the utilization of the radio spectrum through opportunistic spectrum access. In this context, the cognitive radios opportunistically access the spectrum which is licensed to primary users when the primary user transmission is detected to be absent. For opportunistic spectrum access, the cognitive radios should sense the radio environment and allocate the spectrum and power based on the sensing results. To this end, in this thesis, I develop a novel cooperative spectrum sensing scheme for cognitive radio networks (CRNs) based on machine learning techniques which are used for pattern classification. In this regard, unsupervised and supervised learning-based classification techniques are implemented for cooperative spectrum sensing. Secondly, I propose a novel joint channel and power allocation scheme for downlink transmission in cellular CRNs. I formulate the downlink resource allocation problem as a generalized spectral-footprint minimization problem. The channel assignment problem for secondary users is solved by applying a modified Hungarian algorithm while the power allocation subproblem is solved by using Lagrangian technique. Specifically, I propose a low-complexity modified Hungarian algorithm for subchannel allocation which exploits the local information in the cost matrix. Finally, I propose a novel dynamic common control channel-based medium access control (MAC) protocol for CRNs. Specifically, unlike the traditional dedicated control channel-based MAC protocols, the proposed MAC protocol eliminates the requirement of a dedicated channel for control information exchange. / October 2015

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are composed of a large number of battery-powered sensor nodes that have the ability to sense the physical environment, compute the obtained information and communicate using the radio interfaces. Because sensor nodes are generally deployed on a large and wild area, they are powered by embedded battery. And it is difficult to change or recharge the battery, thus to reduce the energy consumption when sensors and protocols are designed is very important and can extend the lifetime of WSNs. So sensor nodes transmit packets with a lower transmission power (e.g. OdBm). With this transmission power, a packet can only be transmitted dozens of meters away. Therefore, when a sensor detects an event, a packet is sent in a multi-hop, ad-hoc manner (without fixed infrastructure and each sensor is able to relay the packet) to the sink (specific node which gathers information and reacts to the network situation). In this thesis, we first give an elaborate state of the art of WSNs. Then the impacts of duty-cycle and unreliable links or the performances of routing layer are analyzed. Based on the analytical results, we then propose three new simple yet effective methods to construct virtual coordinates under unreliable links in WSNs. By further taking the duty-cycle and real-time constraints into consideration we propose two cross-layer forwarding protocols which can have a greater delivery ratio and satisfy the deadline requirements. In order to have protocols for the WSNs that have dynamic topology, we then propose a robust forwarding protocol which can adapt its parameters when the topology changes. At last, we conclude this thesis and give some perspectives.

Les réseaux de capteurs sans-fil sont composés de dispositifs électroniques conçus pour mesurer une grandeur physique de l’environnement dans lequel ils sont déployés et pour acheminer ces mesures à un système d’information. Dans nos travaux, nous étudions les architectures de réseau et les protocoles de communication associés afin de déterminer les configurations adéquates à un scénario de réseau de capteurs pour la Ville Intelligente. Après avoir recensé les applications et leurs exigences de Qualité de Service attendue, nous avons construit des modèles analytiques permettant de comparer les différentes familles de protocoles MAC en terme de taux de livraison et de consommation d’énergie. Ces travaux permettent ainsi de motiver le choix d’un protocole synchrone ou asynchrone, à contention ou à accès direct, en fonction du scénario applicatif et du déploiement de réseau considéré : longue portée ou multi-sauts. Sur la base des résultats de cette étude, nous proposons ensuite un ensemble d’optimisation des protocoles de communication permettant d’améliorer la Qualité de Service et la dépense énergétique des compteurs. Nous proposons une méthode d’accès au médium de communication permettant l’allocation de plusieurs instants de transmission en une phase unique de tournoi. Cette optimisation vise à réduire le pôle de consommation majoritaire des réseaux multi-sauts, tel qu’identifié dans l’étude précédente. Le protocole résultant, CT-MAC, résout l’allocation de plusieurs instants de transmission en une unique phase de compétition et de manière distribuée. CT-MAC réduit ainsi la consommation d’énergie de l’arbitrage du médium. Nous proposons ensuite un mécanisme de relayage adaptatif pour l’architecture de réseau longue-portée. Le protocole, nommé SARI-MAC, est conçu de manière à pallier aux ‘trous’ de couverture que présentent les systèmes radio longue-portée lorsqu’ils sont déployés dans un habitat urbain dense. Pour cela, SARI-MAC propose d’exploiter certains nœuds du réseau, choisis pour leurs ressources en énergie, en tant que relais pour leurs voisins dont le bilan radio est insuffisant pour respecter les exigences de Qualité de Service de l’application. SARI-MAC est un protocole MAC asynchrone, initié récepteur dont les paramètres s’adaptent automatiquement aux conditions de trafic et aux contraintes de cycle d’activité imposées par la durée de vie souhaitée des nœuds capteurs et par la législation. Finalement, nous proposons un schéma de routage opportuniste appelé QOR. QOR est un protocole de routage qui tire profit des liens radio longue portée, opportunistes afin d’améliorer la fiabilité et la latence des transmissions de données dans un réseau de collecte. Pour cela, QOR propose une structure de routage combinée à un schéma d’adressage permettant d’identifier un ensemble de nœuds relais entre une source et la passerelle de collecte. / Wireless Sensors are small electronic devices made for measuring physical properties of their environment and communicating them wirelessly to an information system. In this thesis, we study existing network architectures and to devise the best-suited configuration for typical urban wireless Sensor Network use-cases. To that effect, we provide comprehensive analytical models to compare the different families of MAC protocols in terms of Delivery Rate and Energy Consumption, e.g. synchronous vs asynchronous, contention-based vs direct access etc. Headlines results a mathematical framework to devise the least energy-cost contention algorithm for a given Delivery Rate and closed-form expressions of the Energy Consumption and Delivery Rate for popular access control protocols. These results are then synthesised in a comparison study of the two prevailing urban sensors network architectures, i.e. long-range and multihop. We show that long-range sensor networks are best-suited for low-traffic and sparser network topologies while higher traffic loads and denser network topologies demand switching to a multihop network operating a synchronous MAC protocol on higher bitrate radios. Based on the analysis of the architectures best suited for each use-case scenario, i.e. low traffic loads/sparse network and high traffic loads/dense network, we identify suitable optimisations to improve the QoS performance and energy efficiency of said architectures. First, we improve on the energy efficiency of the arbitration of the medium access by defining a cascading tournament contention algorithm. This protocol, CT-MAC, resolves multiple timeslots allocation in a single, energy efficient contention tournament. Second, we propose an adaptive relaying scheme for the long-range network architecture named SARI-MAC. This scheme is an attempt to cope with coverage holes that occurs when using long-range in a dense urban habitat by letting sensor nodes relay communications of nodes whose link budgets are incompatible with the QoS requirements of the network. To that effect, we propose a receiver-initiated MAC protocol that self-adapts to the traffic condition so that the duty-cycle of relayers is kept as low as possible with respect to the load of frames to relay. Finally, we propose an opportunistic relaying scheme named QOR. QOR is a routing protocol that exploits long-range, opportunistic radio links to provide faster and more reliable transmissions. To that effect, QOR proposes a joint routing structure and addressing scheme that allows identifying a limited set of nodes than can become opportunistic relayers between a source sensor and the sink. Those nodes then follow an original cascaded acknowledgement mechanism that brings reliable acknowledgment and ensures a replication-free forwarding of the data frames.