Chapter 9
Techniques for Protocol Programming
The function of good software is to make the complex appear to be simple.
—Grady Booch
Wireless sensor networks are made up primarily of spatially distributed autonomous devices that use sensors to cooperatively monitor certain physical entitle such as temperature, sound, vibration, and pressure at different locations. Most sensor nodes are used in one of two contexts: as distributed databases or for event detection [2]. Irrespective of the roles employed in a sensor network, communication plays a critical role in determining life span, routing speed, and ultimately the nature of data that can be communicated in wireless sensor networks. It is for this main reason that we discuss some of the available protocols and features supported by most MAC implementations [4,1].
The S-MAC is a medium access control protocol for wireless sensor networks. It has been optimized for wireless sensor networks offering some advantages of 802.11-based MAC implementations such as reduced energy consumption and support for self-configuration. In its development, three sources of energy waste were identified and improved, resulting in energy savings of 2–6 times over those of traditional 802.11-like MACs. Two of the three areas of improvement are discussed below:
- Collision. When two or more nodes try to transmit packets at the same time, collisions may occur, resulting in packet corruption. Over a period of time these collisions represent a significant ...
