Optimized Relay Node Based Energy-Efficient MAC Protocol for a Wireless Sensor Network

Few of the most important quality of service (QOS) requirements for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are bounded delay and energy efficiency. This paper presents a new Improved Energy-Efficient Distributed Receiver Based Cooperative Medium Access Control Protocol (Improved E(2)DRCMAC) for WSNs which employs cooperative communication for delay sensitive and energy-efficient applications. We first recognized the limitations of cooperative communication which includes additional processing and reception steps at each node which increases energy and time delay with which the packets reach the destination. To address this issue, multi-hop cooperative communication scheme is proposed, which makes use of genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize relay nodes for delay minimization and energy savings. The Improved E(2)DRCMAC outperforms E(2)DRCMAC in terms of 70 % decrease in energy consumption, 45 % less end-to-end delay at higher data rates, and close to 100 % packet delivery ratio as node density starts increasing.