Zoning and Relaying-Based MAC Protocol With RF Recharging

Radio-frequency (RF) recharging can extend maintenance-free operation of wireless sensor networks. However, the period between recharging is limited by the distance between the most distant sensor node and the master, which sends out recharging pulses. To increase this period, we propose a zoning scheme in which nodes are logically grouped into circular zones centered at the master so that nodes in a given zone send their data to their neighbors in the next closer zone, which act as relays. We describe and analyze a polling Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol that supports zoning and relaying through a probabilistic model of the energy depletion process and a queueing model of the packet transmission process. Our results indicate that zoning extends the time interval between recharge pulses and leads to equalization of node lifetimes, but limits the available data transmission bandwidth as well.