Wang et al.

EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking

(2020) 2020:32
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13638-020-1642-7

RESEARCH Open Access

The energy-efficient MDA-SMAC protocol

for wireless sensor networks
Ke Wang1,3, Xiaohu Zhao2*, Yao Shi1, Donghong Xu1,3 and Ruoyu Li1

Abstract
Nodes in original S-MAC protocol just can visit the channel in the scheduling and listening stage. The working
schema may result in data latency and high conflict. To solve those above problems, we split scheduling duty into
multiple micro-duties. By using different micro-dispersed contention channel, the sensor nodes reduce the collision
probability of the data. Aiming at detecting the fixed duty cycle in S-MAC protocol, on the basis of the micro-duty
and buffer queue length, this paper presents an adaptive duty cycle and back-off algorithm. While using different
back-off algorithm with different duty cycles, sensor node Fast-Binary Exponential Backoff and Conflict-Avoid-Binary
exponential Backoff algorithm separated are applied to reduce data latency further reduce the conflict probability.
Combining both of the improvements, we propose a modified S-MAC protocol. Comparing the performance of S-
MAC protocol and Division-Multiple Access-Media Access Control (MDA-SMAC) protocol on the NS-2 simulation
platform, the results show that MDA-SMAC protocol performs better in terms of energy consumption, latency, and
effective throughput than S-MAC protocol
Keywords: Wireless sensor networks, S-MAC protocol, Micro-duty, MDA-SMAC protocol

1 Introduction and single-channel MAC protocol; according to data com-

Wireless sensor networks are consisting of thousands of munication types, it can be divided into unicast and multi-
extremely small and cheap devices that can sense the cast MAC protocol; according to the variability of nodes
environment and communicate the data as required. transmission power, it can also be divided into fixed and
Wireless sensor networks have emerged as one of the first variable power MAC protocol. Based on the node access
real applications of ubiquitous computing. So saving en- channel method, the most wildly used classification di-
ergy of sensor nodes is the important issue when design- vides the MAC protocol into three classifications: MAC
ing wireless sensor network applications. Media Access protocol based on channel allocation mechanism, hybrid
Control (MAC) protocol, which determines how sensors MAC protocol, and MAC protocol. MAC protocol based
get access to the channel, directly controls the communi- on competition mechanism for wireless sensor networks
cation module with most energy consumption of the has the following features: better adaption to network top-
nodes. The design of energy-efficient Division-Multiple ology changes, no centralized control of the large number
Access- Media Access Control (MDA-SMAC) protocol is of scattered sensor nodes, and that channel is only in use
one of the hot researches about wireless sensor networks. when data transmission occurs. Otherwise, it turns into
Currently, many researchers of MAC protocol for wire- sleep or low-power state, dramatically reducing the energy
less sensor networks conducted in-depth research in this consumption.
field and also achieved some results [1]. There is no unity Due to its inherent flexibility, scalability, and the
criterion for dividing MAC protocol into different classes advantage of tackling the problem of data fluctuation,
in wireless sensor networks: according to the number of competition-based MAC protocol is widely used with high
occupied channels, it can be divided into multi-channel research value. Sensor-Media Access Control (S-MAC)
protocol [2], proposed by the USC/ISI Wei Ye, John
Hediemann et al, is a typical completion-based protocol in
* Correspondence: [email protected]
2
The National Joint Engineering Laboratory of Internet Applied Technology wireless sensor networks. Almost all other competition-
of Mines, Xuzhou, China based MAC protocols borrowed from some of the thinking
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article

© The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
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Wang et al. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking (2020) 2020:32 Page 2 of 10

of this protocol or improved on its basis. This IEEE802.11 when conflict occurs among nodes: use a kind of back-off
MAC-based protocol, especially proposed for solving the algorithm to postpone node access to the channel.
problem of limited energy storage of sensor nodes in S-MAC has three major components: periodic listen
wireless sensor network, achieves a better energy efficiency and sleep, collision and overhearing avoidance, and mes-
effect, with assumptions that the network can tolerate a sage passing.
certain delay, and allowance for node sleep periodically. Each node goes to sleep for some time and then wakes
Since the S-MAC protocol uses a competitive mechanism up and listens to see if any other node wants to talk to
for accessing channel, it also has good scalability. The main it. During the 2013 3rd IEEE International Advance
mechanism applied in the S-MAC protocol are timing Computing Conference (IACC) 489 sleep, the node
synchronization, flow-adaptive listening, crosstalk avoid, turns off its radio and sets a timer to awake it later. The
and fragment messages transmit. duration of time for listening and sleeping can be se-
In the S-MAC protocol, nodes use a locked duty cycle lected according to different application scenarios. For
to work, which cannot get with the changes of network simplicity, these values are the same for all the nodes.
traffic. Sleep listen scheduling schema for nodes are Network and application assumptions are the node to
fixed: at the beginning of each listen/sleep duty, nodes node communication; in network processing (like data
compete for the channel, with nodes within a cluster aggregation), application have long idle period and can
working in a synchronized way. This approach leads to a tolerate some latency. Periodic listen and sleep is used to
less node working hours, long sleep time, wasting a lot avoid idle listening. Contention mechanism is the same
of time resources, and large network latency. During the as in IEEE 802.11 to avoid collision. Overhearing is
stage of listening, all nodes try to get access to channel. avoided by letting interfering nodes go to sleep when
So when network traffic flow is large or in a dense they hear RTS/CTS packets. So that they may not hear
Wireless Sensor Net (WSN) environment, the conflict the long data packet, the ACK.NAV value is used for
between the nodes will exacerbate, which led to multiple this purpose. Message passing is used to reduce control
nodes retransmission back-off. overhead in contrast with 802.11. Long messages are
For solving the above mentioned problem, we split broken into small fragments and transmitted as a burst.
scheduling duty into multiple micro-duties. By using Extra delay was because of node periodic sleeping.
different micro-dispersed contention channel, the sensor Adaptive listening has also been introduced to improve
nodes reduce the collision probability of the data. Aiming the latency in multi-hop scenarios (Fig. 1).
at detecting the fixed duty cycle in S-MAC protocol, on Combining those typical back-off algorithms, we can
the basis of the micro-duty and buffer queue length, this draw their general formula below:
paper presents an adaptive duty cycle and back-off
min ðmi  CW i ; CW max Þ
f
algorithm. While using different back-off algorithm with
different duty cycles, sensor node Fast-Binary Exponential W iþ1 ¼ maxðr i  CW i ; CW min Þ ð2  1Þ
Backoff (F-BEB) and Conflict-Avoid-Binary exponential minðCW i þ li ; CW max Þ
Backoff (CA-BEB) algorithm separated are applied to re-
duce data latency further reduce the conflict probability. Formula 2-1 means the current window value are
changed according to the accessing state of nodes in
2 Method back-off algorithms. We propose a theoretical analysis of
2.1 Micro-duty method these algorithms based on these algorithms. Suppose
2.1.1 Basic principles of micro-duty there is a current node in the network, each node will
Both S-MAC and Time-Media Access Control (T-MAC) definitely send data after a period of channel compe-
protocol adopt conflict resolution ways of IEEE802.11MAC tition. We set W(t) as the back-off counter size at

Fig. 1 The design of SMAC protocol

Wang et al. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking (2020) 2020:32 Page 3 of 10

time t (a discrete-time set here), t and t + 1 are two Xm 1

τ¼ ▪Q
Qi;0 ¼
consecutive time slots, and T is the size of a time i¼01−p 0;0
slot. After the node selected W(t), it is clear that the 2ð1−2pÞ ð2  9Þ
¼
back-off window value of the node is knowable dur- ð1−2pÞðW þ 1Þ þ pW ½1−ð2pÞm 
ing the period of W(t) retreating to 0; therefore, a
Markov chain model could not be constructed. We This formula express the relationship between the col-
set another stochastic process R(t) = k to indicate the lision probability. The node can be drawn from the con-
number of node collision times at slot time t, and we dition probability as shown below:
can get the formula 2-2 to 2-5, where p denotes the
possible collision probability of data transmission in p ¼ 1−ð1−τÞn−1 ð2  10Þ
the channel and k denotes the frequency of node
Literature [3] solves this kind of problem by applying
accessing channel.
another Markov chain model, deriving the formula (2-11).
log2 ð1−pÞ
Pf j; kj j; k þ 1g ¼ 1 ð2  2Þ n¼1þ
log f1−2ð1−2pÞ=fð1−2pÞðW þ 1Þ þ pW ½1−ð2pÞm gg

Equation 2-2 means for each time the node enters into ð2  11Þ
a new time slot (i.e., channel being listened to be idle);
As can be seen, the probability of data transmission de-
its back-off timer value is decreased by 2.
pends on the collision probability p, which has a close link
1−p with the number of nodes in the current conflict region.
Pf0; kj j; 0g ¼ ð2  3Þ Through the above two analytical methods, we can get
W0
the following result. When the network load is light, less
Equation 2-3: after the packet transmission, the num- number of nodes will visit the channel less and less con-
ber of its current collision time is set to be zero, and the flicts will occur among nodes. When the network load is
back-off window value will be re-selected. heavy, a large number of nodes will compete for the
Equation 2-4: if the node collision occurs, the number channel, more conflicts will be aroused within the same
of collision will be added by 1, and the back-off window time, and more energy will be consumed.
value will be re-selected. S-MAC protocol is thoroughly studied in Literature
[4]. The numbers of nodes in the network are un-
p changed by man, but the probability of conflict between
Pfi; kj j−1; 0g ¼ ð2  4Þ
Wi the nodes and energy consumption can also be reduced
by controlling the arrival time of node for the channel
Equation 2-5: once the collision time reaches the up
competition, which means different nodes visit channel in
limit, the node will reset the contention window.
different time phrases Hence we propose the following
p improved idea. A mechanism is introduced, by which, vir-
Pfn; kjm; 0g ¼ ð2  5Þ
Wn tual nodes within a cluster of S-MAC protocol dispersedly
compete for the channel. Part of the nodes listen the
According to the formula 2-2 to 2-5, limiting distribu- channel when the other nodes are in a sleep state, while
tion can be expressed as: shift into a sleep state while other nodes listens the chan-
nel. In this manner, the nodes are dispersed by different
Qi;k ¼ limt→∞ pfW ðt Þ ¼ j; Rðt Þ ¼ k g ð2  6Þ time intervals to contend for the channel, reducing the
probability of collision. Meanwhile in a large duty, nodes
According to Kolmogorov-Chapman (KC) equation,
and data communications can be carried out repeatedly in
we draw the following conclusion:
a manner similarly to Time-Division-Multiple Access
Q j;0 ¼ p j ▪Q0;0 j∈ð0; mÞ ð2  7Þ (TDMA), thereby reduces data latency.
In order to achieve its design objective of decentralized
By Equation 2-8, the system can derive the steady state nodes and multi-period multi-node communication
conditions of the collision probability of the node: within the mission ring, this paper presents a new sched-
uling duty: the micro-duty. Nodes in S-MAC protocol,
2ð1−2pÞð1−pÞ with the same scheduling period formed a virtual cluster,
Q0;0 ¼ ð2  8Þ
ð1−2pÞðW þ 1Þ þ pW ½1−ð2P Þm  consisting of multiple virtual clusters throughout the
network. Similarly, micro-clusters a kind of cluster is
On the basis of this formula, we can get the following smaller than virtual cluster in S-MAC protocol. Setting
equation. micro-duty as the synchronous scheduling unit for each
Wang et al. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking (2020) 2020:32 Page 4 of 10

node, nodes working in the same micro-duty compose deducted according to formula 4-24, wherein N repre-
the smaller micro-clusters, and micro-clusters constitute sents the number of the divided micro-duty.
the virtual clusters in S-MAC. 8
The number of micro-clusters is equal to the number >
> E residual
 N ≤1
< 1
E init
of micro-duty. Only nodes working in the same micro- n ¼ E 
>
> residual E residual
N >1
duty only belong to the same micro-cluster. One sched- : N
uling duty in S-MAC protocol can be split into n micro- E init E init
duties; therefore, the number of micro-clusters is also n. ð2  12Þ
Node is calculated according to the formula 2-12 a
2.1.2 The component of micro-duties number of micro-duty of its own is n, then the node is
In S-MAC protocol, three stages of nodes: set to work only the first n state in 10 micro-duty, the
synchronization, listening, and sleeping constitute a rest of the micro-duty in a sleep state.
complete scheduling period, that is, a task loop (micro- The smaller the residual energy of nodes, the fewer
duty). Within each task loop, nodes firstly synchronize the number of its access channel. If the node is the ini-
and then listen and send the data, and shift to sleeping tial energy of 1000 J, when the remaining energy is less
mode when sleep clock arrives, as shown in Fig. 2. than 100 J, the remaining energy will be the case with
Division of micro-duty: the listener/sleep stage of a task the initial energy ratio is less than 1, there is necessary
loop in the original S-MAC protocol is divided into to perform further calculations, then the node is calcu-
multiple independent continuous listening shorter sleep lated according to the formula 2-13:
stages. For node, data are transmitted at each micro- lis- 8
> E residual
tener stage, and then turn into the sleep state to conserve >
>1 M <1
>
> E init
energy at each micro-sleep stage. Multiple successive < E
> 
E residual
residual
micro-duties constitute the micro listener/sleep duty of n¼  M  10 0:1 < M <1
>
> E init  E init
the original S-MAC protocol as shown in Fig. 3. >
>
>
> E residual E residual
: M M >1
E init E init
2.1.3 Choosing and setting state ð2  13Þ
In MDA-SMAC protocol, nodes first need to determine
the number of their own micro-duty and status of each After completing the number selection of micro-
micro-duty, and then adjust its duty cycle according to duty, nodes need to set the status of each micro-duty.
network traffic micro-duty. So, how to choose the num- First, the node choose m random numbers from { 1,2,
ber of micro-node duty they own, and set the status of 3,…m}; each random number are used to represent
each micro-duty for themselves, is the primary task dur- each micro-duty of a node. Node status in each
ing nodes initialization. micro-duty is determined by the following rules: when
Conserving energy for nodes is the primary task of the state of the random number is greater than or
wireless sensor network, data transmission are permitted equal to the threshold value, the node is in listening
to have a certain delay on the condition that energy are state within the micro-duty; when the random num-
ensured to be efficiently conserved. To solve this prob- ber is less than the threshold value, the node is in
lem of energy-constrain, Literature [5, 6] proposed a sleeping state within the micro-duty. Threshold is also
clustering protocol based on residual energy. Therefore, need to be set by considering the residual energy of
on the basis of this paper, we propose an approach to se- the node. This paper combines the threshold value
lect the number of micro-duty based on the remaining with the owing number of micro-duties of node. The
energy, and set the state of the micro-duty. threshold is set according to the formula 2-14:
With 10% duty cycle, the task loop is divided into 10 F ¼ dn=2e ð2  14Þ
micro-duties. The initial energy of the node is Einit , after
a period of operation, its residual energy is Eresidual. By setting a threshold in the formula 2-14, it is feasible
Hence the number of micro-duties of the node can be that node can listen to the channel within half of the

Fig. 2 The schedule of S-MAC

Wang et al. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking (2020) 2020:32 Page 5 of 10

Fig. 3 The micro-duty

micro-duty and sleep within the other half micro-duty. In the MDA-SMAC protocol, nodes use formula 2-15
In this way, the nodes extend the sleep time, and further to adjust the duty cycle of micro-duty.
reduce the energy consumption.
By setting the state of micro-duty in this method, 
minð2  DC old ; DC max Þ Qlength ≥ 60
the node can use a plurality of micro-duties for DCnew ¼
DC old Qlength < 60
communication, to get the goal of multiple nodes
communicating over a large period of the duty. And ð2  15Þ
due to the random selection, nodes are dispersed in
different micro-duty. Number of nodes that compete
in each micro-duty is less than the number of nodes
of contention channel in S-MAC protocol (all nodes 2.3 BEB back-off algorithm
of the virtual cluster) less. Hence, collision probabil- S-MAC protocol use BEB back-off [9] algorithm re-
ity of the data is decreased, and then, more energy gardless of the current network traffic condition. BEB
is saved. The threshold value determines whether the algorithm stipulates different upper limit for retrans-
node should get access to channel within the micro- mission. In general, the upper limit of the retrans-
duty. For a single node, no access to channel means mission of the node in BEB algorithm is 7, and the
the node sleep time is longer, lower energy con- corresponding range for the back-off window size is
sumption, and longer network lifetime. [0, 127]. If the RTS/CTS mechanism are adopted, the
upper limit thereof is 4, corresponding to the back-
off window value interval [0, 16]; NS2 [10] [11] in
2.2 Suitable method for traffic duty cycle the S-MAC protocol set the maximum back-off win-
In this paper, length of buffer queue is adopted as a dow to be 63. However, fixed setting method for
key factor for assessing network traffic, and then, the window back-off interval is not suitable for dynamic-
duty cycle of MDA-SMAC protocol is dynamically ally changing wireless sensor networks, and therefore,
changed. Defining rules in the MDA-SMAC protocol developing the flow-adaptive back-off algorithm is a
as follows: if the buffer queue length is greater than direction for improving S-MAC protocol.
a certain threshold value, then the duty cycle of the All back-off algorithms contain two fields: CWmin
node should be increased due to more packets need and CWmax, representing minimum back-off window
to be transmitted and more crowded network traffic. value and maximum back-off window value, respect-
After many experiments, we consider that if the ively. Back-off window value is randomly selected
buffer queue length is over 60, the current network from two. Therefore, one of the key point for flow-
traffic is large, and nodes need to expand the duty adaptive back-off algorithm is dynamically changing
cycle. Therefore, we use 60 (a buffer length) as the the size of CWmin and CWmax. On this basis, we
duty cycle threshold. propose two improved BEB algorithm: F-BEB and
Literature [7, 8] also proposed dynamic duty strat- CA-BEB.
egy on basis of S-MAC protocol. They further study
the dynamic duty cycle mechanisms in these proto- 2.3.1 F-BEB algorithm
cols, where the node still compete in a unified lis- This paper sets a threshold Lrate for buffer utilization
tening period for channel, causing larger conflict rate. The threshold parameter tuning in terms of
probabilities between nodes. In the MDA-SMAC buffer space and inclusion of traffic load in conges-
protocol, nodes use micro-cycle to schedule and tion notification along with average size is used
work is distributed within the micro-duty, so the After several experiments, we find that when the
probability of conflict between the nodes is signifi- buffer queues length becomes less than 12 that indi-
cantly reduced. Therefore, adaptive duty cycle in cates lower network traffic. So set Lrate to be 12%.
MDA-SMAC protocol means adjusting the duty The back-off window range is modified according to
cycle of the micro-duty. formula 2-16 and 2-17:
Wang et al. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking (2020) 2020:32 Page 6 of 10

CWnewmin ¼ dð1 þ Buffer rate Þ=2  CWmin e

ð2  16Þ

CWnewmax ¼ dð1 þ Buffer rate Þ=2  CW n e ð2  17Þ

The lower the utilization rate, the less data will need
to be send. Associating the back-off window interval of
standard duty cycle of nodes with the current buffer
utilization rate, back-off window range of the node can
be dynamically reduced [12–15]. For each time, small
value of the back-off window size selection leads to less
back-off time of the node, allowing fast accessing to
channels. Therefore, under the standard duty cycle, if
the buffer utilization rate is less than Lrate, then the node Fig. 4 The topo of single-hop
uses F-BEB algorithm for channel competition. F-BEB
back-off algorithm is described as [12]. On the whole, F-
Since MDA-SMAC protocol uses stochastic manner to
BEB algorithm applies three strategies: freezing the
decide which micro-cycle will be selected for nodes to
counter in the busy period of the channel, the back-off
listen. For each time, stochastic results may be different,
window value increases.
so this paper uses the mean value of multiple experi-
ments as simulation results (Table 1).
2.3.2 CA-BEB algorithm
Data is sent from 5 s, continuing to 30 s. In the simula-
First, the node will alter its back-off window range
tion process, different nodes access channel at different
according to the formula 2-18 and 2-19,
times, and at the same time, by changing packet trans-
CWnewmin ¼ dð1 þ Buffer rate Þ  CW min e ð2  18Þ mission time intervals, the size of the network traffic is
stimulated. The smaller transmission interval, the more
CWnewmax ¼ dð1 þ Buffer rate Þ  CW max e ð2  19Þ node sending packets stimulate larger current network
traffic; the larger the transmission interval, the fewer
In CA-BEB algorithm, nodes change the back-off win- node sending packets stimulate less network traffic. In
dow interval according to its current buffer utilization, the simulation process, the data packet transmission
which provides two main benefits, the detailed descrip- interval ranges from 1 to 10s, with each interval under
tion of CA-BEB algorithm can be viewed in [13]. In the 10 tests, taking 10 times the average for the final results.
algorithm, node dynamically changes its back-off win- In this paper, average energy consumption of nodes
dow interval according to the current buffer utilization for the two protocols during each interval of data send-
rate, rather than simply doubling the node back-off ing is compared as benchmarks. Figure 5 shows the
window interval. Hence, the size of back-off window comparison of the energy performance of the two proto-
interval could properly be controlled, preventing over- cols. As can be seen from the figure, energy consumed
sized window problem for nodes to some extent and in the use of MDA-SMAC protocol for node sends a
taking into account the competing fairness of channel
access as well [16–20]. Table 1 Some simulation parameters of experiment 1
In general, F-BEB algorithm reduces the extent of star-
vation and improves fairness and CA-BEB more relies
on the capability of the stations to detect a collision by
hearing their own transmission.

3 Results and discussion from single-hop

simulation
Experiment uses one hop topology for simulation. In
NS2 platform, node positional relationship is shown
in Fig. 4. Twenty-one nodes are deployed in the 100
m × 100 m area; the node 0 is at the network center.
Sink nodes are responsible for receiving data, and the
other 20 nodes are located around the node 0 send-
ing data to sink.
Wang et al. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking (2020) 2020:32 Page 7 of 10

cycle and a high S-MAC protocol conflicts result in higher

data delay. MDA-SMAC protocol applies a micro-cycle as
a scheduling period, in which a node can transmit data in
a plurality of micro-cycles, while the node uses adaptive
duty cycle flow mechanisms and CA-BEB algorithm to re-
duce conflict. Hence, data latency of MDA-SMAC is less
than that of S-MAC protocol. With the gradual reduction
of network traffic, the data transmission delay in both pro-
tocols is decreasing. However, due to the F-BEB algorithm
that MDA-SMAC protocol adopted, when the network
traffic is low, the data latency is still less than that of S-
MAC protocol.
As shown in Fig. 7, effective throughput of the two
protocols is compared. As can be seen from the figure,
when the network traffic is larger, the node S-MAC proto-
col operation may cause a large amount of data packets
Fig. 5 The comparison of average energy consumption aggregating in the buffer. This aggregation problem may
result in a higher the probability of collision between the
packet of each transmission interval is less than that of nodes and, therefore, a smaller the effective throughput.
the S-MAC protocol. When the network traffic is large, In MDA-SMAC protocol, data transmission can be re-
the conflict probability between the nodes in S-MAC peated within a scheduling period, and the duty cycle of
protocol also increases. Nodes may require multiple the micro-cycle can be adjusted according to buffer queue
back-off retransmissions, therefore consuming more en- length. Thanks to the adaptive back-off algorithm, the
ergy. The MDA-SMAC dispersed nodes to the micro- effective throughput of MDA-SMACK is higher than that
cycle, reducing the probability of conflict, while the use of S-MAC. When the network traffic is small, there are
of CA-BEB algorithm at a high flow period further re- less the number of packets in the network with small
duces the probability of conflict between the nodes, so conflict probability between the nodes. So there is little
the energy consumption is less than that of S-MAC difference in terms of effective throughput for both S-
protocol. With the gradual increase of the transmission MAC protocol and MDA-SMAC protocol (Table 2).
interval, the network traffic decreases, the energy con-
sumption for the two protocols are reduced. But overall, 4 Results and discussion from multi-hop
the energy consumed by MDA-SMAC protocol is less simulation
than that of S-MAC protocol. Experiment scenarios for multi-hop simulation are
Figure 6 shows the comparison of mean delay. As can shown in Fig. 8, with 40 nodes located in a 100 m × 100
be seen, when the network traffic is high, fixed duty m area. These 40 nodes are located separately in two
clusters (in this case, cluster refers to all nodes in in the

Fig. 6 The comparison of average delay Fig. 7 The comparison of effective throughput
Wang et al. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking (2020) 2020:32 Page 8 of 10

Table 2 Simulation parameters of experiment 2 consumed by MDA-SMAC protocol is still less than that
of the S-MAC protocol, in larger network traffic [21–
23]. With increasing intervals of packet sending, energy
consumption for both protocols are reduced.
Data latency comparison under the two-hop scene in
MDA-SMAC protocol and S-MAC protocol is shown in
Fig. 10. As can be seen from the figure, the next two-
hop scenario, compared to hop scenario, the transmis-
sion delay that has a certain data packet is increased. In
high network traffic, compared to the S-MAC protocol,
due to the MDA-SMAC protocol, using an adaptive duty
cycle and adaptive back-off algorithm can reduce the im-
pact of conflict on data transmission, so data latency is
less than S-MAC protocol. With the increase of contract
intervals, in both reducing delays, delays in MDA-SAMC
agreement are still less than the S-MAC protocol [24–
26].

5 Conclusions
This paper studies the competition-based MAC protocol
single-hop range), and the node 0 belongs to two clus- and analyzes its key technologies, related algorithms, the
ters, as the sink node responsible for data transmission. classic S-MAC protocols based on the competition, and
To ensure data transmission hop-by-hop, the sending analyzed its performance and shortcomings. Then, an
power and the receiving power of nodes will be reduced improved S-MAC protocol is proposed with following
to 150 mw, and the communication radius for nodes is innovations: (1) in wireless sensor networks, data colli-
50 m. Experiments are conducted for 10 times under the sions wasted the most energy, while the data collision
two-hop environment during each interval of data send- probability is closely related to the number of nodes in
ing, taking the average of 10 experiments as a simulation channel competition: the more nodes competing for
result, which takes 50 s (the nodes within two clusters channel, the greater the collision probability becomes.
accessing channel at different times) How to reduce the node number that competes for
In the two-hop scenario, the energy consumption channel in the same time becomes a vital research direc-
comparison of the two protocols is as shown in Fig. 9. tion of reducing the collision probability. On this basis,
Because of the use of the two-hop scene (more number we propose a new scheduling cycle: the micro-cycle,
of nodes than that in experiment one), the conflict prob- which divides a whole listening/sleep time into several
ability between the nodes increases. But it can be seen small listening/sleep cycle. The number of micro-duties
from Fig. 9 that in each contract interval, the energy is determined by residual energy, with different states set

Fig. 8 The topo of two hops

Wang et al. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking (2020) 2020:32 Page 9 of 10

Fig. 9 The comparison of residual energy of nodes

scattering inside each micro-cycle. Channel competing based on the buffer utilization (for standard duty
level is reduced by scheduling each contention in cycle, if the buffer utilization is less than 20%, then
each micro-cycle, reducing the competing level, which F-BEB fast back-off algorithm will be applied for re-
in turn reduces the probability of conflict and saves ducing data latency; for double duty cycle, CA-BEB
node energy. Meanwhile, nodes working in multiple algorithm will be used to reduce the conflict probabil-
micro-cycles transmit data in a similar TDMA man- ity as much as possible and further conserves node
ner, which decreases data latency of network. (2) To energy.
solve the problem that S-MAC protocol cannot prop- MDA-SMAC protocol is proposed by applying micro-
erly adapt to the traffic dynamic change due to its cycles, adaptive micro-cycle duty cycle mechanism and
fixed duty cycle in WSN, we propose a traffic self- adaptive back-off algorithm in the original SMAC proto-
adaptive duty cycle mechanism for micro-cycle. Duty col. Comparing the simulation results for both protocols,
cycle is adjusted according to its buffer queue length it is obvious that MDA-SMAC protocol performs better
(the duty cycle of the micro-cycle will be multiplied if in terms of energy consumption and delay than S-MAC,
the buffer queue length is larger than the threshold especially in high-flow state.
value). Besides, this paper also studied the adaptive
back-off algorithm: for different duty cycle, different Abbreviations
WSN: Wireless sensor netMACMedia Access Control ProtocolMDA-
back-off algorithms will be selected correspondingly SMACDivision-Multiple Access- Media Access Control ProtocolS-MACSensor-
Media Access Control ProtocolCA-BEBConflict-Avoid-Binary exponential
BackoffF-BEBFast-Binary Exponential BackoffT-MACTime-Media Access Control
ProtocolTDMATime-Division-Multiple Access

Authors’ contributions
All authors have contributed to this research work. All authors have read and
approved the final manuscript.

Funding
This work was supported by National Key and Development Project
No.2017YFC0804404

Competing interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Author details
1
School of Computer Science and Technology, China University of Mining
and Technology, Xuzhou, China. 2The National Joint Engineering Laboratory
of Internet Applied Technology of Mines, Xuzhou, China. 3Mine Digitization
Fig. 10 The average delay of two hops Engineering Research Center of Ministry of Education of the People’s
Republic of China, Xuzhou, China.
Wang et al. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking (2020) 2020:32 Page 10 of 10

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