Advantages of Dual Channel
MAC for Wireless Sensor Networks
A. G. Ruzzelli, G. O`Hare, R. Jurdak, and R. Tynan. Abstract
Traditional low
cost radios for wireless sensor networks operate with one frequency channel at
any given time. However, recent advances in radio hardware for WSNs made available transceivers that can support two
simultaneous channels. In this work, we investigate the benefits of using two
parallel independent frequency channels at the MAC layer. In particular, the
paper introduces a technique of Dual Channel Multiple Access with Adaptive
Preamble (DCMA/AP). The protocol uses two separate frequencies for data and
control packets to avoid the use of handshake mechanisms (e.g. RTS/CTS) in
order to reduce energy consumption and packet delay. To address the hidden and
exposed terminal problems, DCMA/AP enables a receiver to send a busy tone
signal on the control channel to notify neighbors that an ongoing reception is
in progress. As a result, packet collisions are nullified with an increase of
node throughput. Furthermore, an
adaptive preamble mechanism in DCMA/AP avoids secondary processes of node
synchronization together with a reduction of idle listening of receiving nodes
that are considered to be one of the major sources of energy consumption in
wireless sensor networks. Finally, DCMA/AP introduces a mechanism of
opportunistic crossover speeds up the process of packet forwarding by
pre-announcing the successive candidate node intended to receive the packet.
Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on
Software for Sensor Networks (SensorWare) at COMSWARE06.