Top-Down TDMA Scheduling Algorithm in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

 Abstract—This paper aims at the design of a centralized-controlled TDMA scheduling algorithm in the single channel Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) environments. We consider the network scenario where packets generated by each WSN device are destined for the common Gateway. A Top-down scheduling mechanism is proposed to assign wireless devices near the Gateway with high priority for transmitting packets. Through simulations, this paper compares and analyzes the scheduling efficiency and packet delay performance achieved by the proposed mechanism and other related works under various network topologies and scenarios. We also investigate the capability of these algorithms in providing differentiated service to those packets with multiple frequency generation patterns and different priority orders. Furthermore, the lossy wireless channel with PDR<1 is also considered to evaluate the reliability performances. Performance results have revealed that the proposed mechanism can achieve satisfactory results in terms of packet delay and packet loss probability for lots of network scenarios.