Energy-efficient MAC protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks

Designing energy-efficient Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols has a significant influence on the energy performance of wireless sensor network (WSN). In this paper we present a survey of the recent typical MAC protocols regarding energy efficiency for WSN. According to channel access policies, we classify these protocols into four categories: contention-based, TDMA-based, hybrid, and cross layer protocols, in which the advantages and disadvantages in each class of MAC protocols are discussed. Finally, we point out open research issues that need to carry on to achieve high energy efficiency for the design of MAC protocols in WSN.