Medium Access Protocol for EYES Wireless Sensor Nodes
L.F.W. van Hoesel, Paul Havinga · University of Twente Research Information · 2003
This paper proposes EMACS, a medium access control (MAC) protocol designed for wireless sensor networks. In this paper we first introduce the application field of wireless sensor networks, and deduce some basic characteristics and requirements for the communication protocols. These characteristics of a wireless sensor network motivate the use of a different family of MAC protocols than currently employed for wireless (ad hoc) networks (such as IEEE 802.11 (1)), in which throughput, latency, and per node fairness, are more important. EMACS uses various novel mechanisms to reduce energy consumption from the major sources of inefficiency that we have identified. The basic mechanisms applied and combined in one protocol are: scheduled operations, collision avoidance, grouping send and receive, connection oriented, and assistance for routing