A Comprehensive Performance Study of IEEE 802 . 15 . 4

IEEE 802.15.4 is a new standard uniquely designed for low rate wireless personal area networks (LRWPANs). It targets low data rate, low power consumption and low cost wireless networking, and offers device level wireless connectivity. We develop an NS2 simulator for IEEE 802.15.4 and conduct several sets of experiments to study its various features, including: (1) beacon enabled mode and non-beacon enabled mode; (2) association, tree formation and network auto-configuration; (3) orphaning and coordinator relocation; (4) carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA-CA), both unslotted and slotted; and (5) direct, indirect and guaranteed time slot (GTS) data transmissions. In non-beacon enabled mode and under moderate data rate, the new IEEE 802.15.4 standard, compared with IEEE 802.11, is more efficient in terms of overhead and resource consumption. It also enjoys a low hop delay (normalized by channel capacity) on average. In beacon enabled mode, an LR-WPAN can be flexibly configured to meet different needs, such as link failure self-recovery and low duty cycle. In both beacon enabled mode and non-beacon enabled mode, association and tree formation proceed smoothly and the network can shape up efficiently by itself. We also discuss some issues that could degrade the network performance if not handled properly.

[1]  A. M. Murray.  Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications , 1999 .

[2]  Yu-Chee Tseng,et al.  The Broadcast Storm Problem in a Mobile Ad Hoc Network , 1999, Wirel. Networks.

[3]  Nathan Ickes,et al.  Physical layer driven protocol and algorithm design for energy-efficient wireless sensor networks , 2001, MobiCom '01.

[4]  David E. Culler,et al.  A transmission control scheme for media access in sensor networks , 2001, MobiCom '01.

[5]  Anantha Chandrakasan,et al.  Energy efficient Modulation and MAC for Asymmetric RF Microsensor Systems , 2001, ISLPED '01.

[6]  Deborah Estrin,et al.  An energy-efficient MAC protocol for wireless sensor networks , 2002, Proceedings.Twenty-First Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies.

[7]  J.A. Stankovic,et al.  Denial of Service in Sensor Networks , 2002, Computer.

[8]  Virgil D. Gligor,et al.  A key-management scheme for distributed sensor networks , 2002, CCS '02.

[9]  Deborah Estrin,et al.  ASCENT: Adaptive Self-Configuring sEnsor Networks Topologies , 2002, Proceedings.Twenty-First Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies.

[10]  Yih-Chun Hu,et al.  SEAD: secure efficient distance vector routing for mobile wireless ad hoc networks , 2002, Proceedings Fourth IEEE Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications.

[11]  Mani Srivastava,et al.  Energy-aware wireless microsensor networks , 2002, IEEE Signal Process. Mag..

[12]  Deborah Estrin,et al.  Complex Behavior at Scale: An Experimental Study of Low-Power Wireless Sensor Networks , 2002 .

[13]  Dawn Song,et al.  The TESLA Broadcast Authentication Protocol , 2002 .

[14]  Joong Soo Ma,et al.  Mobile Communications , 2003, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[15]  C. Karlof,et al.  Secure routing in wireless sensor networks: attacks and countermeasures , 2003, Proceedings of the First IEEE International Workshop on Sensor Network Protocols and Applications, 2003..

[16]  Myung J. Lee,et al.  A Bluetooth scatternet-route structure for multihop ad hoc networks , 2003, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun..

[17]  Roberto Di Pietro,et al.  Random key-assignment for secure Wireless Sensor Networks , 2003, SASN '03.