Radio Duty-Cycle Aloha Protocol

In IoT (Internet of Things) networks, the energy consumption of a device is often one of the limiting factors for its operation, as these devices are typically battery-powered. Much of an IoT device's energy consumption is used to transmit and receive data. Therefore, to reduce energy consumption, efficient radio management is essential. One approach is to employ medium access control (MAC) protocols with radio duty-cycle (RDC). This article proposes a redesign of the MAC sublayer for the Tmote Sky device, rewriting part of its native medium access control (which employs the IEEE 802.15.4 standard) with an implementation of the pure Aloha protocol compatible with the Contiki operating system. By running simulations in the Cooja simulator-emulator, the energy consumption impact of this MAC protocol redesign was analyzed and compared to that of the native MAC. The proposed RDC Aloha protocol resulted in lower energy consumption than the CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance) native protocol. Due to its Aloha-based design, the proposed protocol showed a reduced delivery rate. Still, it can be used in applications that prioritize energy savings and handle low volume of data as in wireless sensor networks (WSNs).