Utz Roedig

f-MAC: A Deterministic Media Access Control Protocol Without Time Synchronization

Utz Roedig, Andre Barroso, and Cormac J. Sreenan. f-MAC: A Deterministic Media Access Control Protocol Without Time Synchronization. In Proceedings of the third IEEE European Workshop on Wireless Sensor Networks (EWSN2006), Zurich, Switzerland, IEEE Computer Society Press, February 2006.

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Abstract

Nodes in a wireless network transmit messages through a shared medium. Thus, a Media Access Control (MAC) protocol is necessary to regulate and coordinate medium access. For some application areas it is necessary to have a deterministic MAC protocol which can give guarantees on message delay and channel throughput. Schedule based MAC protocols, based on time synchronization among nodes, are currently used to implement deterministic MAC protocols. Time synchronization is difficult and costly, especially in energy constrained sensor networks. In this paper the f-MAC protocol is presented which can give guarantees regarding message delay and channel throughput without the requirement of time synchronization among nodes. The various trade-offs of f-MAC are analysed and discussed and application areas that would benefit from f-MAC are presented.

BibTeX

@InProceedings{         ewsn06:roedig,
  author        	= {Utz Roedig and Andre Barroso and Cormac J. Sreenan},
  title         	= {{f-MAC: A Deterministic Media Access Control Protocol Without Time Synchronization}},
  year          	= {2006},
  month         	= feb,
  booktitle     	= {Proceedings of the third IEEE European Workshop on Wireless Sensor Networks (EWSN2006), Zurich, Switzerland},
  publisher     	= {IEEE Computer Society Press}, 
  abstract		= 
	{
			Nodes in a wireless network transmit messages through a shared medium. Thus, a Media Access Control (MAC) protocol 
			is necessary to regulate and coordinate medium access. For some application areas it is necessary to have a deterministic 
			MAC protocol which can give guarantees on message delay and channel throughput. Schedule based MAC protocols, based on 
			time synchronization among nodes, are currently used to implement deterministic MAC protocols. Time synchronization is 
			difficult and costly, especially in energy constrained sensor networks. In this paper the f-MAC protocol is presented 
			which can give guarantees regarding message delay and channel throughput without the requirement of time synchronization 
			among nodes. The various trade-offs of f-MAC are analysed and discussed and application areas that would benefit from 
			f-MAC are presented.
	}
}