A Priority-based Time Slot Allocation Protocol for Hybrid MAC in WSNs

Nodes in WSNs must operate under limited energy resource. Controlling access to the channel in WSNs plays a key role in determining channel utilization and energy consumption. This paper introduces a priority-based time slot allocation protocol for hybrid TDMA/CSMA MAC in WSNs. This protocol combines both TDMA and CSMA techniques while introducing prioritization by (m,k)-firm constraint. The performance of this protocol is obtained through simulations for various number of nodes and show significant improvements in delay and packet delivery ratio compared to S-MAC.