An in-depth study of asynchronous MAC protocols with Low Power Listening

This paper presents an in-depth study of asynchronous protocols from the medium access control (MAC) perspective. The proper design of these protocols is determinant and a vital issue for applications concerning Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) which are used today in a wide area of services, beating out the wired systems. The interest focalizes on MAC protocols since they provide the mean to control the operation of the transceiver that is embedded in the wireless nodes. There is little doubt that this subsystem of a node is the major responsible for the energy dissipation of itself and of the network as a whole. Since WSNs are targeting low rate applications, an in-depth analysis of asynchronous MAC protocols stands to reason.