Energy-Efficient and Reliable Medium Access in Sensor Networks

Energy efficiency and reliable data delivery are the two most important parameters for designing wireless sensor network protocols. Wireless communication is inherently unpredictable and error-prone. Hence, reliability is required to ensure that a packet reaches its desired destination; otherwise the energy expended in forwarding the packet is wasted. On the other hand, energy-saving mechanisms are required for batteryconstrained sensor networks. In this paper, we have designed an on-demand energy-efficient and reliable medium access control (E2RMAC) protocol that enables reliable data delivery and energy conservation without affecting packet latency. We have demonstrated the superior performance of E2RMAC over existing energy-efficient and reliability-enforcing approaches in terms of reliability, latency, scalability and energy-efficiency. 1