Research on Architecture, Cross-Layer MAC Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

With the development of micro-electronics technology, computing technology and the wireless communications technology, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has been great concerned in recent years. The architecture of WSN directly affect entire network performance, and the network performance affects the availability of WSN. The design of WSN architecture need consider many aspects, such as deploy, energy consumption, expansibility, flexibility and error tolerance. The cross-layer MAC protocol can be designed to reduce energy consumption and prolong the network lifetime. In this paper, the architecture, cross-layer MAC protocol for WSNs are introduced. At last, the conclusion and future work of WSNs is discussed.

I. Introduction

Wireless sensor networks combines modern sensor technology, micro electronics technology, wireless communication technology, embedded computing and distributed processing technology, WSNs is composed by a large amount of micro sensor nodes distributed in monitored area [1]. Every sensor node can transmit and process information, these sensor nodes compose a multi-hop and self-organize network system through wireless communication. The purpose of building WSNs is to collaboratively sense, collect and process the information of the objects detected in the monitored area, and then sends it to the observer [2]. The applications of WSN s are very extensive, for example, military application, environmental monitoring, health info, Smart home.