Wireless Sensor Networks (CS 6115)

Lect #6
Spring 2023- 24

Prof. Suchismita Chinara

Department of Computer Science and Engineering
E-mail: suchismita@nitrkl.ac.in

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 MAC protocol
• MAC sub-layer task is to provide fair access
to channels by avoiding possible collisions.

• The main goal in MAC protocol design for

WSN is energy efficiency in order to
prolong the lifetimes of sensors.

• MAC protocols should have the radio

transceivers in a sleeping mode as much as
possible in order to save energy
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Energy efficiency in MAC Design
The reasons for the unnecessary energy waste in
wireless communication are:

⮚Packet collision: It can occur when nodes don’t

listen to the medium before transmitting. Packets
transmitted at the same time collide, become
corrupted and must be retransmitted. This causes
unnecessary energy waste.

⮚Overhearing: A node receives a packet which is

addressed to another node.
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Energy efficiency in MAC Design
⮚Control packet overhead: Control packets are
necessary for successful data transmission. They
don’t, however, represent useful data. They are
very short.

⮚Idle listening: The main reason for energy waste

is when a node listens to an idle channel waiting
to receive data.

⮚Over emitting: The node sends data when the

recipient node is not ready to accept incoming
transmission
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 Objectives of MAC protocols
• Energy efficiency: It refers to the energy consumed per unit
of successful communication. Since sensor nodes are usually
battery powered and it is often very difficult to change or
recharge batteries for sensor nodes, a MAC protocol must be
energy efficient in order to maximize not only the lifetime of
individual sensor nodes, but also the lifetime of the entire
network.
• Collision avoidance: The main goal is to reduce collisions as
much as possible. This can be achieved either by listening to
the channel (CSMA) or by using time (TDMA), frequency
(FDMA) or code (CDMA)channel division access.

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 Objectives of MAC protocols
• Scalability: Scalability refers to the ability to accommodate the
change in network size. In sensor networks, the number of sensor
nodes deployed may be on the order of tens, hundreds, or
thousands. A MAC protocol must be scalable to such changes in
network size.
• Adaptability: Adaptability refers to the ability to accommodate the
changes in node density and network topology. In sensor networks,
node density can be very high. A node may fail, join, or move,
which would result in changes in node density and network
topology. A MAC protocol must be adaptive to such changes
efficiently.
• Latency: Latency represents the delay of a packet when sent
through the network. The importance of latency in wireless sensor
networks depends on the monitoring application.

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 Objectives of MAC protocols
• Throughput: Throughput refers to the amount of data
successfully transferred from a sender to a receiver in
a given time, usually measured in bits or bytes per
second. It is affected by factors like the efficiency of
collision avoidance, control overhead, channel
utilization, and latency.
• Fairness: The MAC protocol needs to provide fair
medium access for all active nodes.
• Channel Utilization: Channel utilization refers to the
bandwidth utilization for effective communication.
Due to limited bandwidth, a MAC protocol should
make use of the bandwidth as efficiently as possible.

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