Skip to main content
Log in

A taxonomy for medium access control protocols in wireless sensor networks

Taxinomie des Protocoles de Contrôle D’accès Au Support Pour Les Réseaux de Capteurs Sans Fil

  • Published:
Annales Des Télécommunications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (Wsns) tend to be highly optimized due to severely restricted constraints. Various medium access control (Mac) protocols forWsns have been proposed, being specially tailored to a target application. This paper proposes a taxonomy for the different mechanisms employed in those protocols. The taxonomy characterizes the protocols according to the methods implemented to handle energy consumption, quality of service and adaptability requirements. We also present an overview of the transceptors found inWsns, identifying how events on communication affect the energy consumption. Based on the taxonomy, we classify existingMac protocols. Finally, we discuss challenging trends inMac protocols forWsns, such as security issues and software radios.

Résumé

Le fonctionnement des réseaux de capteurs sans fil doit être particulièrement optimisé en raisons même des contraintes fortes qu’ils subissent. Plusieurs protocoles de contrôle d’accès au support (Mac) ont été proposés, le plus souvent adaptés à telle ou telle application. Cet article propose une taxinomie des différents mécanismes apparaissant dans ces protocoles en prenant comme critère la consommation d’énergie, la qualité de service et l’adaptation aux diverses contraintes. On présente également un panorama des émetteurs-récepteurs des réseaux de capteurs sans fil en précisant notamment les éléments de la communication qui affectent la consommation d’énergie. A partir de cette taxinomie, on présente une classification des protocolesMac existants. Enfin, on analyse quelques points clés de ces protocoles notamment les questions liées à la sécurité et la radio logicielle.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Akyildiz (I. F.), Su (W.), Sankarasubramaniam (Y.), Cayirci (E.), A Survey on Sensor Networks,Ieee Communications, 40(8), pp. 102–114, 2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Meguerdichian (S.),Koushanfar (F.),Qu (G.),Potkonjak (M.), Exposure in wireless ad-hoc sensor networks. InProceedings of the 7th annual international conference on Mobile computing and networking, pp. 139-150,Acm Press, 2001.

  3. Ruiz (L. B.),Nogueira (J.M.S.),Loureiro (A.A. F.), Functional and Information Models for the manna Architecture.Colloque Francophone sur la Gestion de Réseaux et de Services, pp. 455–470, February 2003.

  4. Langendoen (K.),Halkes (G.),Embedded Systems Handbook. R.Zurawski — to be published, 2005.

  5. Polastre (J.),Hill (J.),Culler (D.), Versatile low power media access for wireless sensor networks, InProceedings of the 2nd international conference on Embedded networked sensor systems, pp. 95–107,Acm Press, 2004.

  6. Crossbow, Mica2: Wireless Measurement System, http://www.xbow.com, February 2004.

  7. Smart Dust, Smart Dust: Autonomous sensing and communication in a cubic millimeter. http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~pister/SmartDust, February 2004.

  8. Cens, cens Center for Embedded Networked Sensing. Medusa Project. http://www.cens.ucla.edu/Project-Descriptions/Sensor_Node_Platforms/, January 2005.

  9. Gatech, Sensonet project: Protocols for sensor networks. http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~weilian/Sensor/index.html, February 2005.

  10. Jpl. jpl Sensor Webs, http://sensorwebs.jpl.nasa.gov/, February 2005.

  11. Millennial Net, Millennial net: Wireless sensor networks. http://www.millennial.net, February 2005.

  12. μamps, jjamps Projet. http://www-mtl.mit.edu/research/icsystems/uamps, March 2005.

  13. Pico. Pico Radio. http://bwrc.eecs.berkeley.edu/Research, April 2005.

  14. Vieira (M. A. M.), Embedded system for wireless sensor network, Master’s thesis, Departamento de Ciencia da Computação, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte-Mg, Brazil, April 2004.

  15. Eyes, eyes — Energy efficient sensor networks. http://www.eyes.eu.org, February 2005.

  16. Wins, Wireless Integrated Network Sensors (Wins). http://www.janet.ucla.edu/wiNs/, March 2005.

  17. Tmote Sky. MoteIV: Wireless Sensor Networks, http://www.moteiv.com, March 2005.

  18. Cc 1000. Chipcon corporation.Cc1000 low powerFsk transceiver. http://www.chipcon.com, March 2005.

  19. Tr 1000.Ash TranceiverTr1000 data sheet. http://www.rfm.com, March 2005.

  20. Coelho (C. M.),Agarwal (D. P.),Mobile Ad Hoc Networking, chapter 3, pp. 125–186.Sbrc 2002, May 2002.

  21. Tanenbaum (A. S.),Computer networks. Prentice HallPtr, 4 edition, 2003.

  22. Woo (A.),Culler (D.E.), A transmission control scheme for media access in sensor networks, InMobile Computing and Networking, pp. 221–235, 2001.

  23. Agarwal (S.), Krishnamurthy (S.), Katz (R.), Dao (S. K.). Distributed power control in ad hoc wireless networks, InPersonal and Indoor Mobile Radio Communication,2, pp. 59–66,Ieee, October 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Karn (P.), A New Channel Access Protocol for Packet Radio, InAmerican Radio Relay League9th Computer Networking Conference, April 1990.

  25. Monks (J. P.),Transmission Power Control for Enhancing the performance of wireless packet data networks. Doctor of philosophy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001.

  26. Heinzelman (W. R.),Chandrakasan (A.),Balakrishnan (H.), Energy-Efficient Communication Protocol for Wireless Microsensor Networks. InIeee Proceedings of the Hawaii International Coference on System Sciences, pp. 4–13, January 2000.

  27. Tilak (S.),Abu-Ghazaleh (N.B.),Heinzelman (W.), Infrastructure Tradeoffs for Sensor Networks. InAcm, editor,First International Workshop on Wireless Sensor Networks and Applications, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2002.

  28. Ye (W.),Heidemann (J.),Estrin (D.), An Energy-EfficientMac protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks. In Proceedings of theIeee International Conference on Computer Communication, pp. 1567–1576.Ieee, June 2002.

  29. Dewasurenda (D.),Mishra (A.), Design Challenges in Energy-Efficient Medium Access Control for Wireless Sensor Networks, In (M.)Ilyas and (I.)Mahgoub, editors, Handbook of Sensor Networks: Compact Wireless and Wired Sensing Systems, 1, chapter 28,Crc PressLlc, 2004.Isbn 0-8493-1968-4.

  30. Van Dam (T.),Langendoen (K.), An Adaptive Energy-efficientMac protocol for wireless sensor networks. InProceedings of the first international conference on Embedded networked sensor systems, pp. 171–180.Acm Press, 2003.

  31. Rajendran (V.),Obraczka (K.), Garcia-Luna-Aceves (J. J.). Energy-efficient collision-free medium access control for wireless sensor networks. InProceedings of the first international conference on Embedded networked sensor systems, pp. 181–192.Acm Press, 2003.

  32. Schurgers (C), Tsiatsis (V.), Ganerival (S.), Srivastava (M.), Optimizing sensor networks in the energy-latency-density space, Inieee Transactions on Mobile Computing, 1(1):, pp. 70–80, Jan–Mar 2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Bambos (N.),Kandukuri (S.), Power Controlled Multiple Access (Pcma) in Wireless Communication Networks. In Proceedings of theIeee International Conference on Computer Communication, pp. 386–395, 2000.

  34. Pradhan (D.K.), editor, Fault-tolerant computer system design,Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1996.

  35. Avizienis (A.), Laprie (J.-C), Randell (B.), Landwehr (C.E.), Basic concepts and taxonomy of dependable and secure computing.Ieee Trans. Dependable Sec. Comput, 1(1), pp. 11–33, 2004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Walke (B.), Esseling (N.), Habetha (J.), Hettich (A.), Kadelka (A.), Mangold (S.), Peetz (J.), Vornefeld (U.), Ip over Wireless MobileAtm — Guaranteed Wireless QoS by HiperLan/2. Proceedings of theIeee,89, pp. 21–40, Jan 2001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Peterson (L.L.),Davie (B.S.), Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, 3rd Edition.Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., 2003.

  38. Bhatnagar (S.),Deb (B.),Nath (B.), Service differentiation in sensor networks. InProceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Wireless Personal Multimedia Communications, September 2001.

  39. Sankarasubramaniam (Y.),Aran (O. B.),Akyildiz (I.F.),Esrt: event-to-Sink reliable transport in wireless sensor networks. In Proceedings of the 4thAcm international symposium on Mobile ad hoc networking & computing, pp. 177–188.Acm Press, 2003.

  40. Younis (M.),Akkaya (K.),Eltoweissy (M.),Wadaa (A.), On Handling QoS Traffic in Wireless Sensor Networks, InProceedings of the 37th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, page 90292.1.Ieee Computer Society, 2004.

  41. Dai (F.),Wu (J.), Energy-Efficient Coverage Problems in Wireless Ad Hoc Sensor Networks,Journal of Computer Communications on Sensor Networks, 2004.

  42. Xiao (Y), Ieee 802.11e: A QoS Provisioning at theMac layer,Ieee Wireless Communications, 11(3), pp. 72–79, Jun 2004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Lu (C),Blum (B. M.),Abdelzaher (T.F.),Stankovic (J. A.),He (T.),Rap: A real-time communication architecture for large-scale wireless sensor networks, In Proceedings of the EighthIeee Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium, page 55.Ieee Computer Society, 2002.

  44. Callaway (E.), Gorday (P.), Hester (L.), Gutierrez (J. A.), Naeve (M.), Heile (B.), Bahl (V.). Home networking withIeee 802.15.4: a developing standard for low-rate wireless personal area networks,Ieee Communications Magazine, 40(8), pp. 70–77, August 2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Ns, The network simulator —Ns-2. http://www.isi.edu/nsnam/ns/, January 2005.

  46. Hill (J.),Szewczyk (R.),Woo (A.),Hollar (S.),Culler (D.),Pister (K.), System architecture directions for networked sensors, InAsplos-IX: Proceedings of the 9th international conference on Architectural support for programming languages and operating systems, pp. 93–104.Acm Press, 2000.

  47. Zheng (J.), Lee (M. J.), WillIeee 802.15.4 make ubiquitous networking a reality — A discussion on a potential low power, low bit rate standard.Ieee Communications Magazine, 42(6), pp. 277–288, June 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  48. Zheng (J.),Lee (M. J.), A Comprehensive Performance Study ofIeee 802.15.4.Ieee Press Book, 2004.

  49. Crossbow Technology Inc. MicaZ: ZigBee Series. http://www.xbow.com, March 2005.

  50. Zigbee Alliance. ZigBee Alliance Reaches Major Milestone Toward A Global Interoperable Standard. http://www.zigbee.com, January 2005.

  51. El-Hoiydi (A.),Decotignie (J.D.), WiseMac: An ultra low power mac protocol for the downlink of infrastructure wireless sensor networks, In 9thIeee Symposium on Computer and Communications (Iscc), pp. 244–251, June 2004.

  52. Van Hoesel (L.F.W.),Havinga (P. J. M.), A lightweight medium access protocol (Lmac) for wireless sensor networks. InProceedings of the First International Conference on Networked Sensing Systems, June 2004.

  53. Chatterjea (S.),Van Hoesel (L.F.W.),Havinga (P.J.M.),Ai-lmac: An Adaptive, Information-centric and LightweightMac Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks. InProceedings of the dest International Workshop on Signal Processing for Sensor Networks, December 2004.

  54. Tuttlebee (W. H.W.), Software-defined radio: Facets of a developing technology,Ieee Personal Communications, 6(2), pp. 38–44, 1999.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. Shnayder (V.),Hempstead (M.),Chen (B.),Allen (G.W.),Welsh (M.). Simulating the power consumption of large-scale sensor network applications. InProceedings of the 2nd international conference on Embedded networked sensor systems, pp. 188–200.Acm Press, 2004.

  56. Karlof (C),Sastry (N.),Wagner (D.), TinySec: a link layer security architecture for wireless sensor networks. InProceedings of the 2nd international conference on Embedded networked sensor systems, pp. 162–175.Acm Press, 2004.

  57. Sastry (N.),Wagner (D.), Security considerations forIeee 802.15.4 networks. In Proceedings of the 2004Acm workshop on Wireless security, pp. 32–42.Acm Press, 2004.

  58. Perrig (A.),Szewczyk (R.),Wen (V),Culler (D.),Tygar (J.D.),Spins: security protocols for sensor networks. In Proceedings of the 7th annual international conference on Mobile computing and networking, pp. 189–199.Acm Press, 2001.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Correia, L.H.A., Macedo, D.F., Dos Santos, A.L. et al. A taxonomy for medium access control protocols in wireless sensor networks. Ann. Télécommun. 60, 944–969 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03219955

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03219955

Key words

Mots clés

Navigation