Ad-ATMA: An Efficient MAC protocol for Wireless Sensor and Ad Hoc Networks

Efficient medium access control (MAC) algorithms are needed for nodes to share a transmission medium and achieve a high throughput. A MAC algorithm schedules packet transmissions so as to that minimize the time taken to send the packets without collisions. In wireless ad hoc and sensor networks, a MAC algorithm must conserve energy as well as provide good throughput. Most existing MAC algorithms for wireless networks are designed to work well under low traffic rates. In this paper we propose a new distributed algorithm Ad-ATMA for wireless ad hoc and sensor networks under relatively high traffic rates. We demonstrate using simulations that Ad-ATMA outperforms the best existing algorithms designed for higher traffic rates in terms of packet delivery ratio and latency while consuming almost identical energy as them.