I-MAC: Energy efficient intelligent MAC protocol for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Energy efficiency is a vital aspect of resource constrained wireless sensor networks (WSNs). All protocols designed for WSNs must be energy aware in order to prolong the network lifetime. In this paper, we have designed a novel MAC layer protocol (I-MAC: Intelligent MAC) for WSNs. By exercising intelligent sleep and wake-up schedule, I-MAC saves energy of the resource constrained sensor nodes greatly. At the same time, I-MAC does not compromise its operational performances. Both analytical study and simulation prove that I-MAC is not only highly energy efficient but also its operational performances are better than similar protocols.