Applications for wireless sensor networks are extremely diverse, covering almost every walk of human life. Most existing work considers wireless sensor network design to be an optimization problem - minimizing energy consumption while maximizing some performance parameters. These studies typically offer only a few design choices (sometimes only one) that provide "better" optimization techniques for design of a few isolated network settings. Because of diverse application requirements, designers will benefit immensely from (sensor) network protocols that can provide a wide spectrum of design choices, especially for very low energy budget applications. In this proposal, the PIs describe an approach, Route-aware Media Access Control (RASMAC), that can greatly diversify design choices by extending existing MAC layer protocols to include an expressed tradeoff between energy and performance qualities. RASMAC uses knowledge of routing paths to opportunistically turn off the radio when a node is not on an active routing path. The research plans of the PIs center on developing and evaluating new MAC and routing protocols that improve the design choices offered by RASMAC and the performance modeling of these protocols. A comprehensive evaluation plan of the developed protocols and their performance models is planned that involve design and implementation of a wildlife tracking system. This offers a valuable opportunity for collaboration between computer scientists and biologists, which may produce critical advances in the ability to protect endangered species in the future.
