Stochastic Beacon Transmission in Wireless Sensor Networks: IEEE 802.15.4 case

In wireless sensor networks, a periodic broadcast message or a beacon with strict time requirement can be con- tinuously collided when there are multiple nodes with the same period in the same space. This type of collision prevents a network from operating normally: a node is unable to join a network, and a network topology breaks if the periodic message contains critical information such as network and timing parameters as in IEEE 802.15.4. We show that the affected area by the collision occupies significant percentage of an original service area. This paper proposes a new algorithm to solve the permanent collision problem in periodic broadcasting or beaconing. The proposed stochastic beacon algorithm avoids the collision by incorporating randomness in beacon transmission while main- taining a fixed beacon period. The algorithm is evaluated by analysis and simulation based on IEEE 802.15.4, and compared with other 7 methods. The results show that our algorithm can avoid permanent beacon collision and reduces substantially the collision probability with very low added complexity.