ENERGY-AWARE SENSOR MAC PROTOCOLS

Abstract

Sensor network applications typically require continuous monitoring of physical phenomena for extended periods of time under severe energy resource constraints. Accordingly, design considerations for sensor Media Access Control (MAC) protocols depart significantly from those of traditional wireless MAC protocols that largely ignore the energy factor. In this paper, we reexamine the design space of wireless sensor MAC protocols and modify IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) to incorporate energy-adaptive contention mechanisms for prolonging sensor lifetime. Performance of the proposed schemes is evaluated with DCF as a baseline and results indicate the benefits of energy-aware mechanisms for sensor MAC protocols.