Dynamic channel allocation for dynamic spectrum use in wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are well suited to solve numerous real-world data collection and estimation problems. While the wireless nodes used for these applications share many similarities with classical wireless terminals, they are also unique in many ways. In particular, WSNs are typically deployed with little or no existing infrastructure and thus must set-up and operate autonomously. In addition, these wireless nodes are often severely constrained in terms of operational resources. For these reasons, there has been a great deal of research and development for medium access control (MAC) and network layers that are designed to meet these unique operational parameters. Here, we introduce a dynamic channel allocation (DCA) algorithm that is designed to operate in a fully distributed ad hoc manner. This DCA-MAC algorithm employs a common channel for link setup as well as multiple additional frequency channels that are used for data transmission. Deemed essential for long-term operation, sleep synchronization is popular for WSNs. DCA-MAC has been designed to incorporate this mechanism.