One flood to route them all: Ultra-fast convergecast of concurrent flows over UWB

Concurrent transmissions (CTX) enable low latency, high reliability, and energy efficiency. Nevertheless, existing protocols typically exploit CTX via the Glossy system, whose fixed-length network-wide floods are entirely dedicated to disseminating a single packet. In contrast, the system we present here, Weaver, enables concurrent dissemination towards a receiver of different packets from multiple senders in a single, self-terminating, network-wide flood. The protocol is generally applicable to any radio supporting CTX; the prototype targets ultra-wideband (UWB), for which a reference network stack is largely missing. Our modular design separates the low-level mechanics of CTX from their higher-level orchestration in Weaver. Other researchers can easily experiment with alternate designs via our open-source implementation, which includes a reusable component estimating UWB energy consumption. Our analytical model and testbed experiments confirm that Weaver disseminates concurrent flows significantly faster and more efficiently than state-of-the-art Glossy-based protocols while achieving higher reliability and resilience to topology changes.