Critical area attention in traffic aware dynamic node scheduling for low power sensor networks

In many sensor network (SN) applications it is necessary to provide reliable, fast and full sensing coverage to a sensitive area while at the same time minimizing energy consumption. This paper proposes a new flexible medium-access control (MAC) protocol designed to address this problem. The primary objective of the SN is to achieve low-power consumption while latency is usually less important compare to traditional wireless networks. This characteristic of SN motivates the design of a new MAC layer so that power consumption is reduced. In this paper, a novel traffic-aware algorithm based on a distributed node schedule management (DMD) protocol is introduced that dramatically increases energy saving, especially in intermediate devices inside a multi-hop network. In addition, high QoS is providing for important areas. Support of QoS in MAC layer reduced the routing overhead significantly. The simulation results show noticeable power consumption improvements compared to 802.11-like, sensor MAC and dynamic SMAC protocols, especially in the large scale, which has been achieved by a tradeoff of more latency.