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A wireless sensor networks MAC protocol for real-time applications

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Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are designed for data gathering and processing, with particular requirements: low hardware complexity, low energy consumption, special traffic pattern support, scalability, and in some cases, real-time operation. In this paper we present the virtual TDMA for sensors (VTS) MAC protocol, which intends to support the previous features, focusing particularly on real-time operation. VTS adaptively creates a TDMA arrangement with a number of timeslots equal to the actual number of nodes in range. Thus, VTS achieves an optimal throughput performance compared to TDMA protocols with fixed size of frame. The frame is set up and maintained by a distributed procedure, which allows sensors to asynchronously join and leave the frame. In addition, duty cycle is increased or decreased in order to keep latency constant below a given deadline. Therefore, a major advantage of VTS is that it guarantees a bounded latency, which allows soft real-time applications.

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Notes

  1. In this paper, we refer to a listen/sleep cycle as timeslot, cycle or frame, depending on the context. A set of listen/sleep cycles is called a superframe. The duty cycle is the ratio of listen interval to total time \( {\text{DC}} = \frac{{T_{{{\text{listen}}}} }} {{T_{{{\text{slot}}}} }}. \)

  2. http://www.omnetpp.org

  3. http://www.xbow.com

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Acknowledgments

The Economy, Industry and Innovation Council have cofunded this work, with the SOLIDMOVIL project (2I04SU044), supported by Fundacion Seneca, from the Region of Murcia with the ARENA Project (00546/PI/04), with the ARPaq project (TEC2004-05622-C04-02/TCM) by the Spanish Research Council and the CSI-RHET project (TEC2005-08068-C04-01/TCM).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Technologies and Communications, Polytechnic University of Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain

    E. Egea-López, J. Vales-Alonso, A. S. Martínez-Sala, J. García-Haro, P. Pavón-Mariño & M. V. Bueno Delgado

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  1. E. Egea-López
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  2. J. Vales-Alonso
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  3. A. S. Martínez-Sala
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  4. J. García-Haro
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  5. P. Pavón-Mariño
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  6. M. V. Bueno Delgado
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Correspondence to E. Egea-López.

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Egea-López, E., Vales-Alonso, J., Martínez-Sala, A.S. et al. A wireless sensor networks MAC protocol for real-time applications. Pers Ubiquit Comput 12, 111–122 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-006-0111-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-006-0111-6

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