Medium Access Control in Wireless Sensor Networks
Wei Ye, John Heidemann · Kluwer Academic Publishers eBooks · 2006
This paper reviews medium access control (MAC), an enabling technology in wireless sensor networks.MAC protocols control how sensors access a shared radio channel to communicate with neighbors.Battery-powered wireless sensor networks with many nearby nodes challenge traditional MAC design.This paper discusses design trade-offs with an emphasis on energy efficiency.It classifies existing MAC protocols and compares their advantages and disadvantages in the context of sensor networks.Finally, it presents S-MAC as an example of a MAC protocol designed specifically for a sensor network, illustrating one combination of design trade-offs.