MAC Protocol Design Using Evolvable State-Machines

This paper explores a framework of Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol synthesis using evolving finite state machines. A network protocol is coded as a genotype and its resulting state machine behavior manifests in the form of the corresponding phenotype, leading to specific protocol performance. The genotype or state machine is allowed to evolve under the pressure of desired performance fitness. In this paper, the proposed framework is applied specifically to the well-known pure-ALOHA protocol for which protocol performance is known under a certain network and loading conditions. Using a C based protocol fitness evaluator and a Java based evolution fabric, we show that a generalized state machine is able to evolve towards known pure-ALOHA solutions under a wide range of network and loading conditions.