Research on Medium Access Control protocols for mobile sensor networks

Most Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols used in wireless sensor networks consider only static nodes. However, there is an increasing interest in sensor network applications where some or all of the nodes are mobile. In this paper, the issue of mobility in sensor networks is addressed, first at a high level, and then in terms of the additional requirements that are placed on the MAC layer by the presence of mobile nodes in the network. Existing proposals for sensor network MAC protocols are then compared under three different mobility scenarios. Finally, the status of current research is summarized and the open research issues of MAC protocols are identified.