MAC protocol with grouping awareness GMAC for large scale Internet-of-Things network

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Networking
• Wireless Communication

Background:

• Internet of Things (IoT) networks require Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols balancing energy efficiency, scalability, and grouping awareness.
• Existing protocols often address these aspects individually, limiting overall network performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce Grouping MAC (GMAC), a novel protocol designed for IoT environments.
• GMAC leverages geographic node distribution and priority levels for optimized medium access.

Main Methods:

• GMAC operates on a five-cycle structure for sensor-to-cluster head and cluster head-to-sink data transmission.
• It incorporates slot decomposition and assignment based on node priority, enabling grouping awareness.
• The protocol utilizes prior knowledge of node distribution and priorities.

Main Results:

• GMAC achieved a Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) exceeding 90%, significantly outperforming benchmarks like IEEE 802.15.4 (as low as 30% PDR).
• End-to-end (e2e) delay was reduced by 3 seconds compared to the best IEEE performance.
• Energy consumption was drastically lowered, with GMAC using 28.1 W/h versus IEEE 802.15.4's 578 W/h in specific scenarios.

Conclusions:

• GMAC offers substantial improvements in PDR, e2e delay, and energy efficiency for IoT networks.
• Its grouping-aware approach, utilizing geographic and priority information, enhances network lifetime and performance.
• GMAC presents a viable solution for demanding IoT communication requirements.