Limited energy, computational, and communication resources complicate protocol design
within sensor networks and prevent the application of many techniques used within other
networks. Constraints on sensor node cost further restrict which technologies sensor
networks may utilize. Despite much attention in recent years, researchers have yet to
achieve the goal of long term, independent operation of sensor network deployments under
these constraints. One research direction considers the energy expended performing …

This chapter provides a broad overview of the MAC protocols especially developed for
sensor networks. These MAC protocols differ from typical WLAN access protocols in that
they trade off performance (latency and throughput) for a reduction in energy consumption to
maximize the lifetime of the network. This is in general achieved by duty cycling the radio,
and it is the MAC layer that controls when the radio is switched on and off. An important
consequence is that a MAC protocol needs to be aware of its neighbors' sleep/active …