An optimal clear channel assessment in IEEE 802.15.4 medium access control protocol for recurrent data transmission and long acknowledgement wait period

Abstract

AbstractThe IEEE 802.15.4 standard medium access control (MAC) protocol is widely adopted for short‐range communication in current technologies such as Internet of Things, smart grids, and smart cities. The IEEE 802.15.4 standard adopts the carrier‐sense multiple access with collision avoidance channel access mechanism, which performs two consecutive clear channel assessment (CCA). However, performing two consecutive CCA may not be suitable for all types of network scenarios in a star topology‐enabled wireless sensor networks (WSN). In this article, we develop an optimal CCA channel access mechanism to address the recurrent data transmission and the long acknowledgement wait period which is encountered in two network scenarios considered in a star topology‐enabled WSN. To achieve these requirements, the proposed methodology performs five consecutive CCA for successful data transmission without going into the next backoff stage. Initially, an accurate Markov chain model is developed. Later, a set of mathematical expressions are developed for the proposed method. The model is validated using MATLAB 2017a programming tool. Simulation results show that the proposed methodology outperforms the existing CCA approaches in terms of channel collision time, delay, reliability, probability of collision, packet loss rate, and the probability of successful data transmission.