Energy Efficient Mobile MAC Protocol with Mobility Vector for Neighbor Selection in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Scenarios where the sensors are mobile, introduce a new set of issues to be addressed in the design of their protocol stack. The layers that get affected the most are the Medium Access Control(MAC) and the network layer. This paper presents a multichannel mobile MAC protocol with Mobility Vector for neighbour discovery. Static nodes in the network use sleep wake pattern to conserve energy. The mobility vector information such as direction and speed, along with the nodes residual energy are used to select a neighbour that can provide maximum connection retention time. Mobility vector information is also used to wake those neighbours that are in the trajectory of the mobile node movement. The proposed multichannel protocol guarantees an interference-free communication. The proposed approach is simulated and compared against other similar MAC protocols, in terms of data-rate, control overhead and energy. Experimental results indicate that the multi-channel MAC gives better results when compared to single channel MAC protocols. Implementation of the proposed approach is tested using Berkley motes and by using custom designed mobile node.