DPCF-M: A Medium Access Control protocol for dense Machine-to-Machine area networks with dynamic gateways

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) area networks must provide connectivity between either an M2M application server or an M2M gateway and a large number of M2M devices. In this paper, we consider a densely populated M2M area network. We propose a novel duty-cycled energy-efficient Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol, called DPCF-M, which switches dynamically between contention-based access (CSMA/CA) for low data traffic periods and a dynamically scheduled access mechanism for high data traffic or high number of contending devices. We have experimentally evaluated the performance of DPCF-M in saturation conditions by real implementation on IEEE 802.15.4 standard-compliant devices. Results show that DPCF-M outperforms the CSMA/CA protocol of the IEEE 802.15.4 non-beacon mode in terms of throughput and energy-efficiency.