Distributed G-MAC

Abstract

A wireless sensor network is an embedded computer network formed by small cheap devices, prone to errors. Communication in such a network in a single-hop range is provided by a Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol. Chess has developed one such a MAC protocol, Gossip-MAC (G-MAC), specifically designed to service gossiping-based traffic. G-MAC was put to the test in a previous research study, in which two major defects were discovered. The first defect is inefficient direct communication in large neighborhoods, caused by hidden terminals. The second is a capacity problem when too many nodes are in one neighborhood. In this research we introduce an improved Gossip-MAC protocol that does not suffer from these two defects. The new MAC protocol has been made collision-free and herein two TDMA scheduling algorithm variations are introduced. The first swarms over a time frame, trying to locate other nodes. The second listens to consecutive intervals relative to the beginning of a frame. Both allow a dynamic number of neighbors in contrast with the original MAC. Both variations are put to the test and Distributed G-MAC turns out to be the best option for Gossiping in terms of both energy consumption and the rate in which news is spread globally.