Queuing Medium Access Control Protocol Research Articles

Energy-Efficiency Analysis of a Distributed Queuing Medium Access Control Protocol for Biomedical Wireless Sensor Networks in Saturation Conditions

The aging population and the high quality of life expectations in our society lead to the need of more efficient and affordable healthcare solutions. For this reason, this paper aims for the optimization of Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols for biomedical wireless sensor networks or wireless Body Sensor Networks (BSNs). The hereby presented schemes always have in mind the efficient management of channel resources and the overall minimization of sensors’ energy consumption in order to prolong sensors’ battery life. The fact that the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC does not fully satisfy BSN requirements highlights the need for the design of new scalable MAC solutions, which guarantee low-power consumption to the maximum number of body sensors in high density areas (i.e., in saturation conditions). In order to emphasize IEEE 802.15.4 MAC limitations, this article presents a detailed overview of this de facto standard for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), which serves as a link for the introduction and initial description of our here proposed Distributed Queuing (DQ) MAC protocol for BSN scenarios. Within this framework, an extensive DQ MAC energy-consumption analysis in saturation conditions is presented to be able to evaluate its performance in relation to IEEE 802.5.4 MAC in highly dense BSNs. The obtained results show that the proposed scheme outperforms IEEE 802.15.4 MAC in average energy consumption per information bit, thus providing a better overall performance that scales appropriately to BSNs under high traffic conditions. These benefits are obtained by eliminating back-off periods and collisions in data packet transmissions, while minimizing the control overhead.

Performance Analysis of a Cluster-Based MAC Protocol for Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

An analytical model to evaluate the non-saturated performance of the Distributed Queuing Medium Access Control Protocol for Ad Hoc Networks (DQMANs) in single-hop networks is presented in this paper. DQMAN is comprised of a spontaneous, temporary, and dynamic clustering mechanism integrated with a near-optimum distributed queuing Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol. Clustering is executed in a distributed manner using a mechanism inspired by the Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) of the IEEE 802.11. Once a station seizes the channel, it becomes the temporary clusterhead of a spontaneous cluster and it coordinates the peer-to-peer communications between the clustermembers. Within each cluster, a near-optimum distributed queuing MAC protocol is executed. The theoretical performance analysis of DQMAN in single-hop networks under non-saturation conditions is presented in this paper. The approach integrates the analysis of the clustering mechanism into the MAC layer model. Up to the knowledge of the authors, this approach is novel in the literature. In addition, the performance of an ad hoc network using DQMAN is compared to that obtained when using the DCF of the IEEE 802.11, as a benchmark reference.

Saturation Throughput Analysis of a Cluster-based Medium Access Control Protocol for Single-hop Ad Hoc Wireless Networks

This paper presents a novel analytical approach to calculate the saturation throughput of the Distributed Queuing Medium Access Control protocol for Ad Hoc Networks (DQMAN) in single-hop scenarios. DQMAN integrates a near-optimum MAC protocol into a passive clustering algorithm based on Carrier Sensing Multiple Access (CSMA). Therefore, based on models of both CSMA and centralized MAC protocols, a new model is presented to accurately calculate the saturation throughput of DQMAN in single-hop networks. In addition, the model presented can be extended to any MAC protocol based on the spontaneous clustering concept of DQMAN. The accuracy of the overall model has been assessed through link-level computer simulations. A performance evaluation of the protocol under different configurations is also presented together with a performance comparison with the IEEE 802.11 standard.