DCS-MAC: A Distributed Cross-Layer Communication Protocol for Directional Sensor Networks

Abstract

Employing directional antenna in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) constitute Directional Sensor Networks (DSNs) which provides potential benefits such as longer coverage range, reduced interference, diminished power requirement and spatial reusability. In this paper, we propose a Distributed Cross-layer Sectored-antenna Medium Access Control (DCS-MAC) protocol. The proposed DCS-MAC employ distributed Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) for MAC and Distributed Slow-Scan Routing (DSSR) protocol for routing purpose. The DCS-MAC eliminates the need for an exclusive neighbor discovery protocol as DSSR protocol itself serves this purpose. The performance of DCS-MAC is simulated using the Cooja simulator with directional antenna support. The simulation results reveal that DCS-MAC display reduced slot allocation delay, lower communication overhead and higher packet delivery ratio.