Efficient Medium Access Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Efficiency of the medium access protocol is crucial for wireless sensor networks. For sensor nodes that are battery powered, it is sometimes difficulty or impractical to charge or replace exhausted battery. The sensor nodes collaborate for a common application such as environmental monitoring. The low sensing ranges result in dense networks. The medium access protocol (MAC) for wireless sensor network must be energy efficient. In this paper, we propose a timeslot sharing medium access protocol for wireless sensor networks. The proposed medium access protocol allows multiple sensor nodes to share a reserved or guaranteed timeslot for transmission. It also allows more sensor nodes to transmit in the reserved or guaranteed timeslots and fewer sensor nodes to contend for the transmission. The primary goal of timeslot sharing medium access protocol is to minimize the energy consumption of sensor nodes as well as to maximize the total number of nodes allowed in a network.