Energy & reliability optimal MAC for WSNs

This work demonstrates ultra-low power, reliable communication in wireless sensor networks. Using simple loose time synchronisation, optimised CSMA, effective management of turnaround-times and clock drift, we demonstrate significant performance improvements over the existing art. Extensive modelling, implementation and empirical comparative evaluation are reported, which evidence performance improvements achieved over the solutions described in the literature, and the de facto benchmarking standards in use community-wide. Specifically, we show that for frequent transmission intervals (i.e. seconds) in multi-hop networks, order of magnitude improvements in both energy efficiency and reliability are achievable over the existing art. Using MAC only mechanisms, 100% packet delivery is achieved for 11 nodes simultaneously attempting to transmit data towards a sink, thus improving reliability by approximately an order of magnitude, while maintaining ultra-low power operation.