SD-MAC protocol for wireless sensor network energy consumption

Energy efficiency remains a critical challenge in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), especially under dynamic traffic conditions. Traditional MAC protocols such as S-MAC and T-MAC suffer from fixed sleep cycles and early sleep problems, limiting their adaptability and efficiency. This paper introduces a novel protocol, Sleep Duty-cycle MAC (SD-MAC), which dynamically adjusts active listening periods based on real-time network traffic, thereby reducing idle listening and improving energy utilization. Unlike conventional approaches, SD-MAC incorporates a traffic-aware scheduling mechanism with dynamically tunable duty cycles, allowing sensor nodes to enter low-power sleep states without compromising data transmission reliability. The protocol is evaluated through extensive simulations using NS-2 under diverse traffic scenarios, with statistically validated performance metrics. Results demonstrate that SD-MAC achieves up to 10% more energy savings and higher throughput than T-MAC and outperforms several recent MAC protocols in terms of energy consumption, medium access delay, and packet delivery rate. These findings confirm the effectiveness of SD-MAC in enabling scalable and energy-efficient WSNs, particularly in low and medium-traffic environments.