A Dual-Radio Framework for MAC Protocol Implementation in Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, we present a dual-radio framework for implementing MAC protocols in wireless sensor networks. The framework is based on the observation that MAC operations can be categorized into time-dependent and bandwidth-dependent. Unlike existing dual-radio systems, we do not propose a new MAC protocol. Instead, we show how a given MAC protocol can be re-implemented using a dual-radio framework resulting in substantial energy savings. Our approach is generic. Different categories of MAC protocols can be re-implemented using dual radios, including synchronous (e.g., SMAC), asynchronous (e.g., BMAC) and hybrid (e.g., SCP-MAC). The proposed framework is easy-to-implement. We have been able to re-implement SMAC, BMAC and SCP-MAC in TinyOS to dual-radio implementations using a combination of mica2 and micaZ motes. Extensive evaluation shows that a reduction of up to 5 times in energy consumption can be attained.