A Multichannel Wireless Sensor Networks MAC Protocol

This book introduces multichannel with single radio as a new paradigm for IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordinated Function (DCF) in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Traditionally WSNs did not need high data rate and throughput with the shift in technology, multimedia streaming, mobility of sensing nodes and vehicular traffic has become the trend for gathering sensing data as such the need for high data rate protocol for WSNs. This book focused on designing an algorithm that applied multichannel to IEEE 802.11 DCF back-off algorithm to reduce the waiting time of a node and increase throughput when attempting to access the medium. Firstly, the MAC sublayers for IEEE 802.15.4 and IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol were studied to aid the understanding of 802.11 and 802.15.4 CSMA/CA scheme. The performance of both have been investigated and evaluated through simulation results. Secondly the proposed MC-DCF backoff algorithm for multi-channel access based on the 802.11 DCF protocols was examined. This algorithm allows node to have access to multiple non-overlapping channels by accessing channels dynamically through channel switching after a set threshold has been met.