EEP-MAC: An Energy EIIicient Priority-based MAC

Protocol Ior Wireless Sensor Networks

Seong-cheol Kim
Div. oI Computer Science
Sangmyung University
Seoul, Korea
E-mail: sckimsmu.ac.kr
Yeong-joon Kim
Div. oI Computer Science
Sangmyung University
Seoul, Korea
E-mail: yjkimsmu.ac.kr


Abstract- In this paper, we present an energy efficient priority-
based MAC (EEP-MAC) protocol for energy harvesting Wireless
Sensor Networks (WSNs). To provide priority-based data
transmission the EEP-MAC uses the modified IEEE 802.15.4
beacon frame. A receiver node periodically wakes up, receives
sender beacon frames from its neighbors, and broadcasts a
beacon frame containing the selected sender`s address. A receiver
node selects sender node according to sender`s data priority.
Under EEP-MAC protocol, no hidden terminal problem can
happen. We show the performance of EEP-MAC through
simulations and analytical analysis, and compare it against the
previous MACs. Results have shown that our protocol
outperforms other MAC in terms of energy consumption, higher
priority packet delivery delay.
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I. INTRODUCTION
Since sensor nodes are usually powered by batteries,
eIIicient energy usage is one oI the most important issues in
wireless sensor networks. To this end, reducing the power
consumption oI sensor nodes is a central research topic Ior
prolong the liIetime oI WSN. One oI eIIective ways to reduce
energy waste is to implement low power technique at MAC
(Medium Access Control). To reduce energy consumption
most oI the MAC protocols in WSN exploit low duty-cycle
|1||2||3||4||5|. Each sensor node in duty cycling alternates
between wakeup and sleep modes periodically. In this paper,
we consider some applications that require some wireless
sensor nodes to transIer critical or urgent data to the destination
node like sink base station as soon as possible Irom the time
they are generated. These urgent data may be generated by
events detected by sensor nodes. The source node and all relay
nodes between source and destination should send these urgent
data packet Iaster than normal data packet. Using modiIied
IEEE 802.15.4 beacon Irame, the source node speciIy these
urgent data as high priority data packet and transmit these data
packets Iirst. And receiver nodes select sender node depending
on the priority bit. With this wake up period control, sender
nodes stay more time in sleep mode and save energy. Recently
lots oI energy-eIIicient MAC protocols Ior wireless sensor
networks have been studied. The examples include S-MAC |1|,
B-MAC |2|, X-MAC |3|, and RI-MAC |5|. In the S-MAC |1|,
nodes go to periodic sleep and active states in order to reduce
energy consumption. The active period oI each cycle is
assumed to be Iixed. This Iixed active period is not adequate
Ior burst data traIIic transmissions. Since all sensor nodes in S-
MAC stay in sleep mode Ior energy saving, latency due to node
sleep timing is inevitable.
II. EEP-MAC
A. Beacon Frame Format of EEP-MAC
Beacon Irames Iormats oI the EEP-MAC are shown in the
Iigure 1. As shown in the Iigure a sender beacon Irame and a
receiver beacon Irame are diIIerent. Sender beacon Irame has
two speciIic Iields in addition to IEEE 802.15.4 |6|
speciIication; priority bit and NAV Iield. Receiver beacon
Irame has Destination address, Energy state, and NAV Iields.
Using this priority bit Iield, sender nodes can notiIy its packet's
priority to their receiver nodes. AIter receiving these senders
beacon Irames with priority bit, a receiver node can determine
receiving order. In other words, iI the receiver node receives
more than one sender beacon Irames, the receiver node selects
the sender node having priority bit 1 Irame. So the higher
priority data packet can be transmitted Iaster than normal data.
Furthermore sender node can notiIy other receiver nodes the
amount oI data that want to transmit using NAV Iield. This
Iield plays same role as NAV Iield oI RTS/CTS packets in
IEEE 802.11.


Figure 1. Beacon Irame Iormat oI the EEP-MAC
591 978-1-4673-4828-7/12/$31.00 20122 IEEE ICTC 2012
A receiver beacon Irame in the EEP-MAC can play two
simultaneous roles. One is Ior acknowledgement to previously
received data packet and the other is Ior notiIication to receive
more data. AIter receiving the receiver beacon Irame, the
sender can send more data.
B. Priority Data Transmission
As we mentioned beIore, the proposed MAC protocol in
this paper can support priority data transmission. We consider
some applications that require all wireless sensor nodes to
transIer critical or urgent data to the destination node like sink
base station as soon as possible Irom the time they are
generated. These data may be generated by events detected by
sensor nodes. Normally these data is abnormal. In this case the
event-detect sensor node or relay nodes should transmit these
data as Iast as possible. For this purpose the EEP-MAC use 1
bit priority bit oI the sender beacon Irame. II a sensor node gets
these time critical or urgent data, the node set the priority bit
and transIer Iirst. And relay nodes between sender and Iinal
destination base station transmit these data preIerentially.
Figure 2 shows the process oI priority data transmission.

Figure 2. Process oI priority data transmission

The receiver nodes always wait Ior senders beacon Irame.
AIter receiving senders beacon Irames, then receiver node
selects sender node depending on the priority bit. To save
energy, receiver nodes will send beacon Irame immediately
aIter receiving sender beacon Irame with priority bit 1. And iI
receiver nodes do not receive sender beacon Irame Ior some
time (Ior example, TA as in TMAC |4|), the receiver nodes
stop to receive sender beacon Irames, determine a sender node,
and transmit receiver beacon Irame. AIter receiving the
receiver beacon Irame, the selected sender can send more data,
and other sender nodes will go into sleep mode. Under EEP-
MAC protocol, no hidden terminal problem can happen.
III. PERFORMANCE OF EEP-MAC
In this section perIormance oI the proposed EEP-MAC
protocol is compared to related works based on analytical
computation. We used the same parameters used in |7|. Figure
3 shows the comparison oI delay Ior the number oI sender
nodes. In this evaluation we assume that there is only one
higher priority sender node. And all other sender nodes have
data to send. We Iound that as number oI sender nodes increase,
the EEP-MAC protocol signiIicantly improves priority packet
delivery.

Figure 3. Delay perIormance Ior no. oI sender nodes

IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have presented an energy eIIicient
priority-based MAC protocol Ior Wireless Sensor Networks.
Using modiIied IEEE 802.15.4 beacon Irame, the source node
speciIies these urgent data as high priority data packet and
transmits these data packets Iirst. We considered some
applications that require all wireless sensor nodes to transIer
critical or urgent data to the destination node like sink base
station as soon as possible Irom the time they are generated.
These data may be generated by events detected by sensor
nodes. A receiver node in the EEP-MAC protocol periodically
wakes up, receives sender beacon Irames, and broadcasts a
beacon Irame containing the selected sender`s address. A
receiver node selects a sender node according to sender`s data
priority. Especially when there are contending senders, such as
with burst higher priority traIIics, the EEP-MAC improves
throughput and end-to-end packet delivery.
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