Next step in MAC evolution: battery awareness?

A major issue in the energy-constrained ad hoc wireless networks is to find ways that increase their lifetime. The communication protocols for these networks have to be designed such that they are aware of the state of the batteries. In this paper, we propose a novel battery aware medium access control (BAMAC(k)) protocol that takes benefit of the chemical properties of the batteries and provides a longer life for the mobile nodes' battery. The proposed protocol extends the battery lifetime and consumes lesser percentage nominal capacity of the battery per packet transmission compared to the IEEE 802.11 and the DWOP (distributed wireless ordering protocol), respectively. A discrete chain Markov model is used to theoretically analyze the protocol, the correctness of which is verified through a detailed simulation study. The performance results show that BAMAC(k) outperforms IEEE 802.11 and DWOP MAC protocols, in terms of power consumption, fairness, and lifetime of the nodes.