A multi-channel MAC protocol for actor-actor coordination in WSAN

In this paper, an interference and throughput aware multi-channel MAC protocol (ITMMAC) is designed for actor-actor coordination in wireless sensor-actor networks (WSAN). Each actor consists of multiple transceivers, hence it can simultaneously transmit or sense on multiple non-interference channels. ITMMAC protocol divides the beacon interval into ad-hoc traffic indication message (ATIM) window and data transmission phase. In the ATIM window, sender negotiates the minimum interference and maximum throughput channel among the available channels with the destination. Each actor processes the channel negotiation phase in the dedicated control channel. The proposed ITMMAC protocol is simulated using NS2. The obtained simulation results are analyzed using network parameters such as average throughput and average packet delay in the network. The simulation results indicate that the proposed ITMMAC protocol performs well as compared to the existing MAC protocols.