Tiered-MAC: An Energy-Efficient Hybrid MAC Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks
Han-Sun Lee, Kwangsue Chung · 2010
Because sensor nodes operate with the limited power based on battery which cannot be easily replaced, energy efficiency is a fundamental issue pervading the design of communication protocols developed for wireless sensor networks. In wireless networks, energy efficient MAC protocols can usually be described as being either a contention-based protocol or a schedule-based protocol. It is suitable to use combination of both contention-based protocol and schedule-based protocol, because the strengths and weaknesses of these protocols are contrary to each other. In this paper, in order to minimize energy consumption of sensor nodes and maximize network lifetime, we propose a new MAC protocol called The Tiered-MAC uses a schedule-based TDMA inside maximum transmission range of sink node and a contention-based CSMA otherwise. Therefore, by efficiently managing the congested traffic area, the Tiered-MAC reduces the unnecessary energy consumption. Based on the ns-2 simulation result, we prove that the Tiered-MAC improves the energy-efficiency of sensor network nodes.