• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.299-304
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• 2017

A wireless passive sensor network is a network consisting of sink nodes, sensor nodes, and radio frequency (RF) sources, where an RF source transfers energy to sensor nodes by radiating RF waves, and a sensor node transmits data by consuming the received energy. Against theoretical expectations, a wireless passive sensor network suffers from many practical difficulties: scarcity of energy, non-simultaneity of energy reception and data transmission, and inefficiency in allocating time resources. Perceiving such difficulties, we propose a simple contending-type medium access control (MAC) scheme for many sensor nodes to deliver packets to a sink node. Then, we derive an approximate expression for the network-wide throughput attained by the proposed MAC scheme. Also, we present an approximate expression for the optimal partition, which maximizes the saturated network-wide throughput. Numerical examples confirm that each of the approximate expressions yields a highly precise value for network-wide throughput and finds an exactly optimal partition.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.29-36
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• 2016

A wireless passive sensor network is a network which, by letting separate RF sources supply energy to sensor nodes, is able to live an eternal life without batteries. Against expectations about an eternal life, however, a wireless passive sensor network still has many problems; scarcity of energy, non-simultaneity of energy reception and data transmission and inefficiency in resource allocation. In this paper, we focus on a wireless passive sensor network providing a packet service which is tolerable to packet losses but requires timely delivery of packets. Perceiving the practical constraints, we then consider a contending-type MAC scheme, rooted in framed and slotted ALOHA, for supporting many sensor nodes to deliver packets to a sink node. Next, we investigate the network-wide throughput achieved by the MAC scheme when the packets transmitted by geographically scattered sensor nodes experience path losses hence capture phenomena. Especially, we derive an exact formula of network-wide throughput in a closed form when 2 sensor nodes reside in the network. By controlling design parameters, we finally optimize the contending-type MAC scheme as to attain the maximum network-wide throughput.