A taxonomy for medium access control protocols in wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) tend to be highly optimized due to severely restricted constraints. Various medium access control (MAC) protocols for WSNs have been proposed, being specially tailored to a target application. This paper proposes a taxonomy for the different mechanisms employed in those protocols. The taxonomy characterizes the protocols according to the methods implemented to handle energy consumption, quality of service and adaptability requirements. We also present an overview of the transceptors found in WSNs, identifying how events on communication affect the energy consumption. Based on the taxonomy, we classify existing MAC protocols. Finally, we discuss challenging trends in MAC protocols for WSNs, such as security issues and software radios.