cycling layer. This definition was previously held in net/mac/mac.h,
with the name MAC_CONF_CHANNEL_CHECK_RATE. But since the rate is used
by the radio duty cycling layer, it makes more sense to change its
name to reflect this. Also, the configuration option should be tied to
the netstack configuration instead.
So the new configuration option is called
NETSTACK_CONF_RDC_CHANNEL_CHECK_RATE.
main ideas are:
* Separates the Contiki low-layer network stack into four layers:
network (e.g. sicslowpan / rime), Medium Access Control MAC
(e.g. CSMA), Radio Duty Cycling RDC (e.g. ContikiMAC, X-MAC), and
radio (e.g. cc2420).
* Introduces a new way to configure the network stack. Four #defines
that specify what mechanism/protocol/driver to use at the four
layers: NETSTACK_CONF_NETWORK, NETSTACK_CONF_MAC, NETSTACK_CONF_RDC,
NETSTACK_CONF_RADIO.
* Adds a callback mechanism to inform the MAC and network layers about
the fate of a transmitted packet: if the packet was not possible to
transmit, the cause of the failure is reported, and if the packets
was successfully transmitted, the number of tries before it was
finally transmitted is reported.
* NULL-protocols at both the MAC and RDC layers: nullmac and nullrdc,
which can be used when MAC and RDC functionality is not needed.
* Extends the radio API with three new functions that enable more
efficient radio duty cycling protocols: channel check, pending
packet, and receiving packet.
* New initialization mechanism, which takes advantage of the NETSTACK
#defines.
of an rtimer for the periodic radio duty cycling. The benefit of this
implementation is that it leaves an rtimer free for user tasks. The
drawback is a slightly higher idle power consumption. This new version
is based on the current rtimer-based X-MAC.
