Energy Efficient MAC Protocols

This paper presents a survey of energy efficiency of Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols for Wireless Body Area Sensor Networks (WBASNs). We highlight the features of MAC protocols along with their advantages and limitations in context of WBASNs. Comparison of Low Power Listening (LPL), Scheduled Contention and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) is also elaborated. MAC protocols with respect to different approaches and techniques which are used for energy minimization, traffic control mechanisms for collision avoidance are discussed. We also present a survey of path loss models for In-body, On-body and Off-body communications in WBASNs and analytically discuss that path loss is maximum in In-body communication because of low energy levels to take care of tissues and organs located inside the body. Survey of Power model for WBANs of CSMA/CA and beacon mode is also presented.