EAMP-AIDC - Energy-aware mac protocol with adaptive individual duty cycle for EH-WSN

Abstract

Network lifetime is the main issue of wireless sensor networks and IoT solutions in real world application. Sensors cannot have an infinite lifetime without battery recharge or replacement. Energy harvesting, from environmental energy sources, is a promising technology to provide sustainable powering for WSN. However, based on harvesting opportunities, nodes power may alternate between two states: a state with sufficient residual power and another with shortage in power. Hence, it is paramount to develop robust networking platforms that are energy-harvesting-aware and that support low-energy consumption and data integrity in a noisy, variable environment. In this paper, we present the EAMP-AIDC protocol, an energy aware MAC protocol for EH-WSN based on individual duty cycle optimization. It takes into consideration nodes' residual energy and application and data requirements in order to define individual dynamic duty cycles (Active and sleep periods) that allow to create a balanced load in term of cooperative data relaying tasks and in terms of energy consumption between the different participating nodes so as to ensure continuous network operation. The proposed protocol was evaluated using the network simulator OMNET++ and was compared to the standard IEEE 802.15.4 MAC. The results showed that EAMP-AIDC protocol outperformed the IEEE 802.15.4 standard in term of better energy consumption, increased survivability in energy savings and in guaranteeing continuous operations.