Comparative analysis of a contention based (RI-MAC) and TDMA based (ATMA) MAC protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have been widely considered as one of the most important technologies that promises wide range of applications in the field of medical, military, environment, home, agriculture, etc. A variety of MAC protocols have been proposed for Wireless Sensor Networks. This paper presents the comparative analysis of two MAC protocols: RI-MAC (Receiver Initiated Asynchronous duty cycle MAC protocol) which is a contention based protocol; and ATMA (Advertisement-based TDMA MAC protocol). The two MAC protocols are analyzed using four performance parameters such as throughput, packet delivery ratio, end to end delay and energy consumption.