An energy consumption analysis of the Wireless HART TDMA protocol

Abstract

In this paper we analyze in detail the energy consumption characteristics of the Wireless HART protocol when operated with a popular transceiver, the ChipCon CC2420. We analyze how much various factors contribute to the overall energy consumption over a longer period of 12h. These factors include the amount of management traffic and the power levels required for various transceiver activities (transmit, receive, listen, sleep). It turns out that in light traffic scenarios and with only a minimum-complexity level of exploitation of the transceivers sleeping capabilities the energy spent in the sleep state over 12h is quite substantial. We then proceed to analyze the energy consumption characteristics with a more complex usage of the transceivers sleeping capabilities in which each node individually selects its next sleep state according to its transmission/reception schedule. With this scheme the energy consumption in the sleep state (over 12h) can be reduced substantially.