Wireless Sensor Network MAC Protocol: SMAC & TMAC

Wireless sensor networks is an emergent technology which has made Ambient Intelligence a reality. It consists of several tiny nodes connected to each other in Ad hoc environment and coordinate with each other to form a network. It has wide range of applications, potential in areas such as intruder alert and tracking, environmental monitoring, industrial process monitoring, and tactical systems.However, as they are spread in areas with difficult terrain and to achieve full coverage of area there are large number of wireless sensors used, it is difficult to replace their batteries once exhausted. Energy conservation is needed especially at MAC layer level. Various MAC protocols with different objectives have been proposed for wireless sensor networks. SMAC is one of the base protocol which with slight modifications results in various protocols. SMAC is having static sleep schedules while TMAC is havingdynamic sleep schedules. In this paper, we first outline the basics of Wireless sensor network then we discuss the properties of MAC layer succeeding with a section outlining the reasons of energy wastes in WSN. Two Protocols discussed in this paper i.e SMAC and TMAC are presented subsequently with their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, before concluding, an article on various design process related to SMAC and TMAC as per WSN is included.