MCA-MAC: Modified Cooperative Access MAC Protocol in Wireless Sensor Networks

Throughput, energy efficiency and average packet delivery delay are some of the most crucial metrics that should be considered in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). This paper proposes a modified Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol for WSNs, called (MCA-MAC). MCA-MAC aims to improve the previous metrics and thus the overall performance of WSNs through using cooperative communication. It enables source nodes from using intermediate nodes as relays to send their data through them to the access point. MCA-MAC protocol is also acting as a cross layer protocol where the best end-to-end path between the source and destination is found through an efficient algorithm. Mathematical analysis demonstrates that MCA-MAC protocol can determine the optimal relay node that has the minimum transmission time for the given source-destination pair. Using Multi-Paradigm Programming Language (MATLAB) simulation environment, this paper estimates MCA-MAC protocol performance in terms of system throughput, energy efficiency and delay. The results show that MCA-MAC protocol outperforms the existing scheme called Throughput and Energy aware Cooperative MAC protocol (TEC-MAC) protocol under ideal and dynamic channel conditions. Under ideal conditions, MCA-MAC protocol achieved throughput, and energy efficiency improvements of 12%, and 50% respectively, more than TEC-MAC protocol. While the packet delay through using MCA-MAC has been decreased by about 48% less than TEC-MAC protocol.