Research Article Open Access

Reliability in MAC Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

Abstract

The field of wireless sensor networks has received widespread acceptance because of the ease deployment of nodes, no prior installation of infrastructure before deployment and low cost of operation. This has caused research in WSN to diversify and not only focus on energy conservation but to also look at ways to enhance the data performance of the network. QoS parameters such as reliability, loss, latency and bandwidth are now at the center stage of research. This paper focused on reliability in wireless sensor networks. A survey is performed on existing MAC protocols that provide reliability and they shall be classified according to the nature of the reliability they provide. There are protocols that provide node to node reliability and those that provide end to end reliability. We shall then analyze challenges associated with these existing mechanisms then propose future research directions.

Nicholas N. Karekwaivanane, Wilson Bakasa, Kudakwashe Zvarevashe

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