RCO: A Multi-channel MAC Protocol with Random Cooperation for Sensor Networks

To handle triple hidden terminal problems, this paper proposes RCO, an asynchronous multi-channel MAC protocol with random cooperation for sensor networks. By adopting a probability-based random cooperation, RCO effectively alleviates, if not eliminates, triple hidden terminal problems. More importantly, RCO is fully distributed with no requirements of time synchronization or multi-radio. Therefore, it is very easy to implement RCO in resource-constrained wireless sensor nodes. The simulation and real testbed experimental results show that RCO achieves significant improvement in energy efficiency with increasing benefit when the number of channels and traffic loads increase, while maintaining higher throughput.