A traffic aware dynamic super-frame adaptation algorithm for the IEEE 802.15.4 based networks

Abstract

IEEE 802.15.4 standard is designed for low power wireless personal area networks (LR-WPANs). Recently, both industry and academia are attracted to IEEE 802.15.4 because of its applicability in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and wireless body area sensor networks (WBANs). An important feature of IEEE 802.15.4 is the very low duty cycle operation to conserve sensor node's energy. In this paper, we propose a traffic aware dynamic super-frame adjustment (TDSA) algorithm that adjusts super-frame through two MAC layer parameters: Beacon Order (BO) and Super-frame Order (SO). These parameters are adapted dynamically when changes are observed in traffic load. In TDSA, the PAN coordinator adjusts both BO and SO simultaneously based on different metrics: application data rate, receive ratio and number of source nodes. Detailed simulation analysis shows that TDSA is capable of meeting application's traffic load requirements by dynamically adjusting the super-frame structure. As compared to IEEE 802.15.4, TDSA increases network throughput, decreases the latency of communication and reduces energy consumption.