A Detailed Review of Multi-Channel Medium Access Control Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks

8 Abstract Most applications of Wireless Sensor Networks 9 (WSNs) assume the presence of single-channel Medium 10 Access Control (MAC) protocols. In the usual dense 11 deployment of the sensor networks, single-channel MAC 12 protocols may be deficient because of radio collisions and 13 limited bandwidth. Hence, using multiple channels can 14 significantly improve the performance of WSN. Recent 15 developments in sensor technology, as seen in Crossbow’s 16 MICAz Mote, Rockwell’s WINS nodes and IEEE 802.15.4 17 Zigbee, have enabled support for multi-channel commu18 nications. Several multi-channel MAC protocols with dif19 ferent objectives have been proposed for WSNs in 20 literature. This paper surveys and classifies the state-of-the21 art multi-channel MAC protocols that are proposed for 22 WSNs. It first outlines the sensor network properties that 23 are crucial for designing a MAC protocol. It subsequently 24 reviews the existent challenges to design a good multi25 channel MAC protocol for the sensor networks. Then, 26 several multi-channel MAC protocols specifically proposed 27 for the WSNs are inspected in detail and compared with 28 each other. Finally, some open issues in this area are out29 lined for future research. 30 31