Research Article

Alert: An Adaptive Low-Latency Event-Driven MAC Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Table 1

Summary of features and assumptions of the Alert Protocol.

Feature Assumption or detail

Architecture Single hop with a centralized base station. Base station is AC Powered
Transceiver Only one transceiver in each node capable of switching frequency channels
Messages Only one message by a node reporting an event
Number of nodes reporting events likely a subset of entire deployment
Events Very rare, but correlated among neighboring nodes
Only one event report needs to reach the base station
Frequency table Prespecified among nodes and switching pattern known to all nodes