An Energy-Efficient MAC Protocol for WSNs: Game-Theoretic Constraint Optimization with Multiple Objectives

Liqiang ZHAO, Le GUO, CONG Li]], Hailin ZHANG
DOI: 10.4236/wsn.2009.14044                

Abstract

In WSNs, energy conservation is the primary goal, while throughput and delay are less important. This re-sults in a tradeoff between performance (e.g., throughput, delay, jitter, and packet-loss-rate) and energy con-sumption. In this paper, the problem of energy-efficient MAC protocols in WSNs is modeled as a game-theoretic constraint optimization with multiple objectives. After introducing incompletely cooperative game theory, based on the estimated game state (e.g., the number of competing nodes), each node independ-ently implements the optimal equilibrium strategy under the given constraints (e.g., the used energy and QoS requirements). Moreover, a simplified game-theoretic constraint optimization scheme (G-ConOpt) is pre-sented in this paper, which is easy to be implemented in current WSNs. Simulation results show that G-ConOpt can increase system performance while still maintaining reasonable energy consumption.

Keywords

Wireless Sensor Network, MAC, Energy Efficiency, Game Theory, Constraint Optimization

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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