Energy-Delay Analysis of MAC Protocols in Wireless Networks

In this paper the tradeoff between energy and delay for wireless networks is studied. A network using a request-to-send (RTS) and clear-to-send (CTS) type medium access control (MAC) protocol is considered. A generic framework is developed that allows us to obtain the joint statistics of energy and delay through their joint generating function, when the effects of an imperfect channel are incorporated in the model. Several energy and delay tradeoffs are studied using the joint generating function. These include the average energy vs. average delay, average delay with energy constraint, etc. The proposed analytical method is verified through simulations.