MCA-MAC: Modified Cooperative
Access MAC Protocol in Wireless Sensor Networks
Aya Hossam1, Tarek
Salem2, Anar Abdel Hady2, and Sherine Abd El-Kader2
1Electrical Engineering Department, Faculty of
Engineering (Shoubra), Benha University, Egypt
2Computers and
Systems Department, Electronics Research Institute, Egypt
Abstract: Throughput, energy efficiency and average
packet delivery delay are some of the most crucial metrics that should be
considered in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). This paper proposes a modified
Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol for WSNs, called (MCA-MAC). MCA-MAC aims
to improve the previous metrics and thus the overall performance of WSNs through
using cooperative communication. It enables source nodes from using
intermediate nodes as relays to send their data through them to the access
point. MCA-MAC protocol is also acting as a cross layer protocol where the best
end-to-end path between the source and destination is found through an
efficient algorithm. Mathematical analysis demonstrates that MCA-MAC protocol can
determine the optimal relay node that has the minimum transmission time for the
given source-destination pair. Using Multi-Paradigm Programming Language (MATLAB)
simulation environment, this paper estimates MCA-MAC protocol performance in
terms of system throughput, energy efficiency and delay. The results show that
MCA-MAC protocol outperforms the existing scheme called Throughput and Energy
aware Cooperative MAC protocol (TEC-MAC) protocol under ideal and dynamic
channel conditions. Under ideal conditions, MCA-MAC
protocol achieved throughput, and energy efficiency improvements of 12%, and 50%
respectively, more than TEC-MAC protocol. While the packet delay through using
MCA-MAC has been decreased by about 48% less than TEC-MAC protocol.
Keywords: WSN, MAC protocol, cooperative communication, energy efficient.
Received
April 12, 2020; accepted September 7, 2020