Medium access control protocols in wireless sensor networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) represent a rapidly emerging research field and are attractive because of their ability to monitor a range of environmental conditions in remote and inaccessible locations. Wireless communication is commonly employed to transfer sensed measurements back to a central location. Energy constraints of the battery-operated devices must be addressed. Although many mechanisms have been proposed to reduce the energy consumption, a lot of energy is still wasted through inefficient communications. Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols which directly control the radio activities may provide efficient solutions. In this paper, a variety of existing MAC protocols are summarised and the feasibility of using Aerial Platforms (APs) for MAC scheduling is considered.