Title: Implementation and performance evaluation of nanoMAC: a low-power MAC solution for high density wireless sensor networks

Authors: Junaid Ansari, Janne Riihijarvi, Petri Mahonen, Jussi Haapola

Addresses: Department of Wireless Networks, RWTH Aachen University, Germany ' Department of Wireless Networks, RWTH Aachen University, Germany. ' Department of Wireless Networks, RWTH Aachen University, Germany. ' Department of Wireless Networks, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

Abstract: This paper describes the implementation architecture and performance analysis of nanoMAC, a CSMA/CA based Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol, which is specifically designed for high density Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). We empirically show that nanoMAC performs with high reliability in a variety of network traffic conditions in single and multihop scenarios. For energy efficient operation and minimising idle-overhearing, nanoMAC uses a specialised sleep algorithm. We also show results from a comparative study of nanoMAC with Berkeley|s MAC (B-MAC) in terms of performance measures, as well as their coexistence in networks deployed in overlapping or nearby areas.

Keywords: wireless sensor MAC; multihop communication; reliability; wireless networks; wireless sensor networks; high density WSNs; medium access control; performance analysis; reliability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSNET.2007.014361

International Journal of Sensor Networks, 2007 Vol.2 No.5/6, pp.341 - 349

Published online: 03 Jul 2007 *

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