Koşunalp S.Tabakcio?lu M.B.20.04.20192019-04-2020.04.20192019-04-2020169.78151E+12https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/SIU.2016.7495822https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12403/61224th Signal Processing and Communication Application Conference, SIU 2016Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have recently been a popular research area with a broad range of applications. One of the most significant constraints of WSNs is energy limitation of sensor nodes. Therefore, energy-efficiency has been considered as primarily design criterion in many medium access control (MAC) protocols developed. In order to solve the issue of limited-energy sources, various recent protocols have focused on energy harvesting from surrounding environment, such as solar, wind and vibration energy, resulting in providing unlimited energy source. Ambient energy exhibits a characteristic of unlimited energy source but not available always due to environmental changes. The focus is now being placed on effective utilization of the time-varying ambient energy. This study aims to provide a review of recently proposed MAC protocols for energy-harvesting WSNs describing their operating principles and underlying features. © 2016 IEEE.trinfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessambient energysensor nodewireless sensor networksAccess controlEnergy efficiencyEnergy harvestingMedium access controlSensor nodesSignal processingambient energyEnergy limitationsEnvironmental changeMedium access control protocolsOperating principlesSurrounding environmentVibration energiesWireless sensor network (WSNs)Wireless sensor networksambient energysensor nodewireless sensor networksAccess controlEnergy efficiencyEnergy harvestingMedium access controlSensor nodesSignal processingambient energyEnergy limitationsEnvironmental changeMedium access control protocolsOperating principlesSurrounding environmentVibration energiesWireless sensor network (WSNs)Wireless sensor networksConference Object64164410.1109/SIU.2016.7495822