A Self-Organize Multi-Channel Medium Access Control (SMMAC) Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

摘要

This paper proposes a multi-channel medium access control (MAC) protocol that extends current MAC developments within the wireless sensor network (WSN) domain. Although multiple channel radio communication protocols have been studied extensively in ad hoc wireless and other radio networks, most are not applicable as nodes in WSN are fundamentally constrained by amongst other features, low cost and limited capability. The proposed MAC utilizes multiple channels dynamically, allowing simultaneous transmissions to take place within a single or multiple non-overlapping radio effective zones. Instead of using synchronization mechanisms (i.e. global timing), the MAC uses a light weight, two-tier handshaking algorithm permitting transmitting nodes to dynamically negotiate a non occupied channel for transmission.