Wireless Sensor Networks for Surveillance Applications - A Comparative Survey of MAC Protocols

Wireless sensor nodes are made up of small electronic devices which are capable of sensing, computing and transmitting data from harsh physical environments. These sensor nodes depend on batteries for energy, which get depleted at a fast rate because of the computation and communication operations these nodes have to perform. A well designed MAC (Medium Access Control) protocol can prolong the network life. A set of previously reported MAC layer protocols has abilities to achieve some energy efficiency. This paper first describes some assumptions made for the specific application area of surveillance applications.