ID-MAC: An identity-based MAC protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are comprised mainly of resource-constrained sensor nodes that can be used to monitor areas of interest. In sensor networks, replacement of node batteries is usually infeasible and power consumption must be minimal to increase node lifetime. A large fraction of power consumption is controlled by the MAC layer, which orchestrates access to the wireless medium trading-off power consumption and throughput. Unfortunately, this orchestration requires exchange of additional data and itself ends up consuming energy. In this work we design a novel approach that does not require extra data to be exchanged. More precisely, we present ID-MAC: an identity-based MAC protocol for WSNs. In ID-MAC, sensor nodes compute when they should wake up in order to transmit and receive frames from their neighbors without exchanging coordination messages. Our evaluation shows that, by eliminating coordination messages, ID-MAC saves energy and prolongs the network´s operating lifespan.