Medium Access Control in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wei Ye and John Heidemann
USC/Information Sciences Institute

Abstract

This paper reviews medium access control (MAC), an enabling technology in wireless sensor networks. MAC protocols control how sensors access a shared radio channel to communicate with neighbors. Battery-powered wireless sensor networks with many nearby nodes challenge traditional MAC design. This paper discusses design trade-offs with an emphasis on energy efficiency. It classifies existing MAC protocols and compares their advantages and disadvantages in the context of sensor networks. Finally, it presents S-MAC as an example of a MAC protocol designed specifically for a sensor network, illustrating one combination of design trade-offs.

Availability

This paper is available in several formats: abstract web page with pointers and cites, gzip'ed postscript, PDF, paper copies can be obtained by mail to the authors. Copyright terms for this paper appear below.

Reference

Ye03c

Wei Ye and John Heidemann. Medium Access Control in Wireless Sensor Networks . Technical Report ISI-TR-580, USC/Information Sciences Institute, October, 2003. To appear as a chapter in \emphWireless Sensor Networks, Taieb Znati, Krishna M. Sivalingam and Cauligi Raghavendra (eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers. <http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Ye03c.html>.

@techreport{Ye03c,
	author = "Wei Ye and John Heidemann",
	title = "Medium Access Control in Wireless Sensor Networks
",
	institution = "USC/Information Sciences Institute",
	year = "2003",
	number = "ISI-TR-580",
	month = "October",
	note = "To appear as a chapter in \emph{Wireless Sensor
                         Networks}, Taieb Znati, Krishna M. Sivalingam
                         and Cauligi Raghavendra (eds.), Kluwer
                         Academic Publishers",
	keywords = "MAC survey paper, book chapter",
	otherurl = "http://www.isi.edu/~weiye/pub/smac_tr580.pdf",
	url = "http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Ye03c.html",
	pdfurl = "http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Ye03c.pdf",
	psurl = "http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Ye03c.ps.gz",
	myorganization = "USC/Information Sciences Institute",
	copyrightholder = "authors",
	pdfurl = "http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Ye03c.pdf",
}

Copyright

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