CBPMAC/TFC: A Wireless Sensor Network MAC Protocol for Systems with Burst and Periodic Signals

Aiming at the application scene with both burst signals and periodic signals, this paper proposes a cluster-based wireless sensor network MAC protocol combining TDMA, FDMA with CSMA/CA - CBPMAC/TFC(a cluster-based wireless sensor network MAC protocol for the system with burst and periodic signals/based on TDMA, FDMA, CSMA/CA). It adopts TDMA mechanism in the clusters, and assigns time-slots for periodic signals and burst signals respectively. In the periodic signal time- slot, only one child node sends its periodic signal, while in the burst signal time-slots, all the child nodes share the channel according to CSMA/CA mechanism. Among different clusters, FDMA mechanism is adopted. Different cluster works at different frequency channel, so they can work simultaneously. For the requirement of synchronization, a cluster-head-based relative time synchronization mechanism is proposed. In addition, the alternation strategy of cluster heads and the disposal strategy of malfunctions are introduced. Analysis and test results show that the protocol could meet the system requirements in reliability, real-time response and energy efficiency.