ECO: Enhanced Reader Collision Avoidance MAC for Reader-Sensor Networks

In recent years, one of alternatives for constructing RFID networks that provide mobile services is using wireless sensor networks (WSN) to enhance network capacity, utility and scalability. Due to absence of compatible reader anti-collision control and channel capture phenomenon, the medium access control protocols as used in the RFID networks lead to reader collision and starvation problem. In this paper, we develop a MAC protocol which is called Enhanced Collision Avoidance MAC (ECO) to avoid reader to reader collisions in an integrated RFID network. ECO is a CSMA-based MAC protocol, and operates on integrated nodes which consist of a RFID reader and a mote. Performance evaluation shows superior results to pure-CSMA protocols under dense deployment environments, both in number of failures and in throughput.