Energy-Aware MAC Protocol for Prolonging Network Lifetime in Solar-Powered Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) that have been used in remote areas are highly constrained in terms of energy and this requires energy-efficient communication protocols. The harvesting of solar energy has become an alternative power supply to such networks but with elastic solar irradiance, there is a problem in reliability of communication and life time of the networks. The proposed study introduces an energy-competent Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol; which is a medium that specially addresses the energy consumption of solar-powered WSNs with the goal to maximize network lifetime. The added value of the proposed protocol is the available real-time solar energy forecasting, awareness of the remaining energy and duty cycling adaptive mechanisms to smartly schedule the communication between the nodes depending on the energy, available and the buffer level. Massive simulations with real solar irradiance data were done and the performance of the protocol was compared with the traditional methods of SMAC and EH-MAC. The findings show a significant result whereby the network lifetime has improved by up to 30 per cent, delivery ratio by packets improved, and there was a reduced amount of energy consumption. The above results illustrate the effectiveness of the suggested MAC protocol in the provision of sustainable and energy-efficient operations of WSN. In addition, the protocol can provide a growing platform upon which future work can be made such as cross-layer optimization and real-time performance monitoring in environmental monitoring as well as smart infrastructure systems.