Kohvakka-Medium Access Control and Hardware Prototype Designs For Low-Energy Wireless Sensor Networks

Tampereen teknillinen yliopisto.
Julkaisu 808
Tampere University of Technology. Publication 808

Mikko Kohvakka

Medium Access Control and Hardware Prototype
Designs for Low-Energy Wireless Sensor Networks

Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Technology to be presented with due permission for
public examination and criticism in Tietotalo Building, Auditorium TB109, at Tampere
University of Technology, on the 29th of May 2009, at 12 noon.

Tampereen teknillinen yliopisto - Tampere University of Technology
Tampere 2009

ISBN 978-952-15-2153-9
ISSN 1459-2045

ABSTRACT
A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an emerging technology consisting of small,
cheap, and ultra-low energy sensor nodes, which cooperatively monitor physical
quantities, actuate, and perform data processing tasks. A deployment may comprise
thousands of randomly distributed autonomous nodes, which must self-congure and
create a multi-hop network topology.
This Thesis focuses on low-energy WSNs targeting to long network lifetime. The
main research problem is the combination of adaptive and scalable multi-hop net-
working with constrained energy budget, processing power, and communication band-
width. The research problem is approached by energy-efcient protocols and low-
power sensor node platforms.
The main contribution of this Thesis is an energy-efcient Medium Access Control
(MAC) design for TUTWSN (Tampere University of Technology Wireless Sensor
Network). The design comprises channel access and networking mechanisms, which
specify data exchange, link synchronization, network self-conguration, and neigh-
bor discovery operations. The second outcome are several low-power sensor node
platforms, which have been designed and implemented to evaluate the performance
of the MAC design and hardware components in real deployments. The third out-
come are the performance models and analysis of several MAC designs including
TUTWSN, IEEE 802.15.4, and the most essential research proposals.
The results and conclusion of this Thesis indicate that it is possible to implement
multi-hop WSNs in harsh and dynamic operation conditions with years of lifetime
using current low-cost components and batteries. Energy analysis results indicate
that the lowest energy consumption is achieved by using simple and high data-rate
transceivers. It is also critical to minimize sleep mode power consumption of all
components and to use accurate wake-up timers. However, the selection of com-
ponents constitutes only a minor part of the solution, and an energy-efcient MAC
layer design being able to minimize radio duty cycle is required. A theoretically ideal
MAC eliminates idle listening, overhearing, collisions, and control trafc overhead.
The performance analysis shows that TUTWSN MAC achieves the highest energy-
ii Abstract
efciency in both router and leaf nodes compared to existing proposals and standards.
Compared to the ideal MAC, the energy consumption of TUTWSN MAC is only
2.85%- 27.1%higher, depending on trafc load, radio, and node type. IEEE 802.15.4
performs the second best resulting in 2.92% to 229% energy overhead. Analysis and
measurements indicate that TUTWSN can maintain high energy-efciency also in
dynamic networks. The MAC and platform designs are measured and validated in
long-term deployments using full-scale WSN implementations.
The results of this Thesis can be used in the WSN research, development, and im-
plementation in general. The designed mechanisms in the MAC layer are presented
and analyzed separately on each other. Presented performance models can be eas-
ily adapted to other protocols. In addition, the developed sensor node platforms are
applicable for experimenting other applications and protocol.
PREFACE
The research work for this Thesis was carried out in the Department of Computer
Systems at Tampere University of Technology during the years 2002 - 2008.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Professor Marko Hn-
nikinen for his guidance, support, and motivation during the research. I am also
grateful to Professor Timo D. Hmlinen for his farsighted guidance and for the op-
portunity to carry out the research in DACI research group. I would also like to thank
the reviewers of my Thesis, Professor Jari Porras and Assistant Professor Evgeny
Osipov for their valuable comments, and Professor Petri Mhnen for agreeing to
serve as an opponent in the defense.
Many thanks to the members of the DACI research group for the inspiring and cre-
ative atmosphere. Special thanks to Dr. Mauri Kuorilehto, Mr. Jukka Suhonen,
M.Sc., Mr. Ville Kaseva, M.Sc., Mr. Tero Arpinen, M.Sc., and all the members of
TUTWSN team for their valuable work that have made this Thesis possible. Also,
thanks to Dr. Panu Hmlinen, Dr. Timo Vanhatupa, and Dr. Jari Heikkinen for
valuable comments and discussions.
My Thesis was nancially supported by Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and
Innovation (TEKES), Academy of Finland, Nokia Foundation, Tekniikan edistmis-
sti (TES), and Ulla Tuomisen Sti.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my family and friends for their support
and encouragement. Especially, I am deeply grateful to my wife Salla for her love
and understanding through these years.
Tampere, April 2009
Mikko Kohvakka
iv Preface
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
List of Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
List of Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 WSN Technology Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Key WSN Design Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Scope, Objectives and Methods of the Research . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 Research Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.5 Thesis Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2. Applications and Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 WSN Application Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Deployments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3 Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3.1 Wireless Communication Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3.2 Standards Related to WSNs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3. Sensor Node Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.1 Platform Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.1.1 Communication subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.1.2 Computing subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
vi Table of Contents
3.1.3 Sensing subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.1.4 Power subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.2 Existing Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4. Medium Access Control for WSNs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.1 Low-Energy MAC Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.2 Existing MAC Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.2.1 Unsynchronized Low Duty-Cycle MAC Protocols . . . . . 37
4.2.2 Synchronized Low Duty-Cycle MAC Protocols . . . . . . . 39
5. TUTWSN MAC Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
5.1 TUTWSN Networking Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
5.2 TUTWSN Channel Access Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
5.3 TUTWSN Networking Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5.3.1 Self-Conguration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5.3.2 Neighbor Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
6. Performance Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
6.1 Utilized Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
6.2 Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
6.2.1 Ideal-MAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6.2.2 B-MAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
6.2.3 SCP-MAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6.2.4 X-MAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
6.2.5 T-MAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
6.2.6 IEEE 802.15.4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.2.7 TUTWSN MAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.3 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Table of Contents vii
7. TUTWSN Sensor Node Platforms and Deployments . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
7.1 TUTWSN Node Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
7.1.1 Node Designs in 2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
7.1.2 Node Designs in 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
7.1.3 Node Designs in 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
7.1.4 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
7.2 TUTWSN Deployments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
7.2.1 Indoor Temperature Sensing Deployment . . . . . . . . . . 93
7.2.2 Environmental Monitoring Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . 97
7.2.3 Building Monitoring Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
8. Summary of Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
9. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
This Thesis consists of an introductory part and the following publications. The
publications are divided into three categories: protocol designs, performance analy-
sis, and hardware platforms. The publications presenting new protocol designs are
referred as [P1] - [P4]. The publications covering the performance analysis and opti-
mizations of existing protocols are referred as [P5], [P6]. The publications discussing
the implementation of hardware prototypes and real application deployments are re-
ferred as [P7] - [P10].
[P1] M. Kohvakka, "TUTWSN MAC Protocol," book chapter in Ultra-low energy
wireless sensor networks in practice: theory, realization and deployment, M.
Kuorilehto, M. Kohvakka, J. Suhonen, P. Hmlinen, M. Hnnikinen, and
T.D. Hmlinen, Chichester: John Wiley, 2007, pp. 145-182.
[P2] M. Kohvakka, J. Suhonen, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, Trans-
mission Power Based Path Loss Metering for Wireless Sensor Networks,
in Proceedings of the 17th Annual IEEE International Symposium on Per-
sonal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC 2006), Helsinki,
Finland, Sep. 1114, 2006, pp. 15.
[P3] M. Kohvakka, M. Kuorilehto, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, Net-
work Signaling Channel for Improving ZigBee Performance in Dynamic
Cluster-Tree Networks, EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and
Networking, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 115, January 2008.
[P4] M. Kohvakka, J. Suhonen, M. Kuorilehto, V. Kaseva, M. Hnnikinen, and T.
D. Hmlinen, Energy-Efcient Neighbor Discovery Protocol for Mobile
Wireless Sensor Networks, Ad Hoc Networks, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 2441,
January 2009.
[P5] M. Kohvakka, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, Energy Optimized
Beacon Transmission Rate in a Wireless Sensor Network, in Proceedings
x List of Publications
of the 16th International Symposium on Personal Indoor and Mobile Radio
Communications (PIMRC 2005), Berlin, Germany, Sep. 1114, 2005, pp.
12691273.
[P6] M. Kohvakka, M. Kuorilehto, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, Per-
formance Analysis of IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee for Large-Scale Wireless
Sensor Network Applications, in Proceedings of the 3rd ACM International
Workshop on Performance Evaluation of Wireless Ad Hoc, Sensor, and Ubiq-
uitous Networks (PE-WASUN 2006), Torremolinos, Spain, Oct. 6, 2006, pp.
4857.
[P7] M. Kohvakka, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, Wireless Sensor
Prototype Platform, in Proceedings of the 29th Annual Conference of the
IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON 2003), Virginia, USA, Nov. 2
6, 2003, pp. 14991504.
[P8] M. Kohvakka, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, Ultra Low Energy
Wireless Temperature Sensor Network Implementation, in Proceedings of
the 16th International Symposium on Personal Indoor and Mobile Radio
Communications (PIMRC 2005), Berlin, Germany, Sep. 1114, 2005, pp.
801805.
[P9] M. Kohvakka, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, Wireless Sensor
Network Implementation for Industrial Linear Position Metering, in Pro-
ceedings of the 8th Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design Archi-
tectures, Methods, and Tools (DSD 2005), Porto, Portugal, Aug. 30Sept. 3,
2005, pp. 267273.
[P10] M. Kohvakka, T. Arpinen, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, High-
Performance Multi-Radio WSN Platform, in Proceedings of the 2nd Inter-
national Workshop on Multi-hop Ad Hoc Networks: from theory to reality
(REALMAN 2006), Florence, Italy, May 26, 2006, Italy, pp. 9597.
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ACK Acknowledgment
ADC Analog-to-Digital Converter
AES Advanced Encryption Standard
API Application Programming Interface
ASIC Application Specic Integrated Circuit
BER Bit Error Rate
B-MAC Berkeley Media Access Control
CAN Controller Area Network
CAP Contention Access Period
CCA Clear Channel Assessment
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
CFP Contention-Free Period
COTS Commercial Off-The-Shelf
CSMA Carrier Sense Multiple Access
CSMA/CA Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance
DSL Digital Subscriber Line
DSSS Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum
ENDP Energy-efcient Neighbor Discovery Protocol
EEPROM Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
xii List of Abbreviations
FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access
FET Field-Effect Transistor
FHSS Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum
FPGA Field Programmable Gate-Array
GDI Great Duck Island
GPS Global Positioning System
GPRS General Packet Radio Service
GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
HR High data Rate
HVAC Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning
IC Integrated Circuit
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IR Infra-Red
ISM Industrial, Scientic, Medicine
LAN Local Area Network
LEACH Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy
LED Light Emitting Diode
LOS Line-of-Sight
LPL Low Power Listening
LR-WPAN Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Network
LR Low data Rate
MAC Medium Access Control
MACA Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance
MCU Micro-Controller Unit
xiii
MIPS Million Instructions Per Second
NCAP Network Capable Application Processor
NCB Network Channel Beaconing
NFC Near Field Communication
NiMH Nickel-Metal Hydride
PACT Power Aware Clustered TDMA
PAMAS Power Aware Multi-Access protocol with Signaling
PCB Printed Circuit Board
PDA Personal Digital Assistant
PHY Physical
PIR Passive Infra-Red
QoS Quality of Service
RF Radio Frequency
RFID Radio Frequency Identication
RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator
SCP-MAC Scheduled Channel Polling Medium Access Control
SDU Synchronization Data Unit
SIG Special Interest Group
S-MAC Sensor-MAC
SMACS Self-Organizing Medium Access Control for Sensor Networks
SoC System-on-Chip
SpeckMAC-B Speck Medium Access Control Backoff
SpeckMAC-D Speck Medium Access Control Data
SRAM Static Random Access Memory
xiv List of Abbreviations
SRSA Self-Organizing Slot Allocation
STEM Sparse Topology and Energy Management
SYNC Synchronization
TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
TEDS Transducer Electronic Data Sheet
TII Transducer Independent Interface
TIM Transducer Interface Module
T-MAC Timeout-MAC
TRAMA Trafc-Adaptive Medium Access
TUTWSN Tampere University of Technology Wireless Sensor Network
TX Transmit
UI User Interface
UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
USB Universal Serial Bus
WiMAX Wordwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
WiseMAC Wireless Sensor MAC
WLAN Wireless Local Area Network
WMAN Wireless Metropolitan Area Network
WPAN Wireless Personal Area Network
WSN Wireless Sensor Network
WWAN Wireless Wide Area Network
Z-MAC Zebra MAC
1. INTRODUCTION
The most profound technologies are those that disappear.
They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life
until they are indistinguishable from it.
Mark Weiser
Wireless network technologies have been under rapid development during the recent
years [111]. Most people feel the strong impact of wireless technology mainly due
to the astonishing growth of cell-phone markets [117]. In the future, the highest po-
tential for growth will be in other types of networks [111]. One of the most potential
technologies is wireless sensor networks [32].
Sensor networks gather information on entities of interest by multiple distributed
sensor elements [32, 202]. Early sensor networks are found in the national power
grid with its many sensors [43], in the radar networks used in air trafc control [32],
and in factory oor, where eldbusses interconnect various sensors, actuators, eld
controllers and man-machine interfaces [196, 214]. These sensor networks consist of
large and expensive sensor elements interconnected by a wired network [32].
The rapid development and miniaturization of computing and communication cir-
cuits has created the vision of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), where thousands
of tiny and cheap sensing nodes operate fully autonomously in interaction with their
environment [4,5,40,124,207]. Nodes performwireless communication by simple ra-
dios, while small processors provide sophisticated functionality [25, 28, 132]. By co-
operation and in-network data fusion, nodes rene the measurement accuracy, detect
and classify occurred events, and control actuators according to the events [31, 112].
Ultra-low energy consumption enables the network lifetime of years with small bat-
teries, or supply energy scavenging solely from operation environment [150]. WSNs
have a vast number of foreseen application elds including military, environmen-
tal and condition monitoring, building automation, object tracking, and interactive
games [5, 32, 88, 124, 211]. They have also been seen as an enabling technology for
ubiquitous networks, where computing power is embedded invisibly around us, and
2 1. Introduction
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Fig. 1. Annually published IEEE research articles containing a phrase "wireless sensor net-
work".
accessed through intelligent interfaces [65, 98, 206, 209].
WSNs have gained extensively growing academic and commercial interest during
the recent years [207, 209, 210]. Fig. 1 illustrates the number of annually pub-
lished articles in the conferences and journals of Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE) containing a phrase "wireless sensor network" [78]. The rst arti-
cle [25] was published in 1996, and less than 50 articles were published until 2001.
However, during a single year 2007, over 3300 WSN related articles were published.
Business Week [208] predicted in September 1999 that WSNs will be one of the most
important technologies of the 21st century.
1.1 WSN Technology Overview
So far, WSNs have been implemented mainly for research purposes [14, 16, 39,
69, 101, 123, 145, 155, 158, 168, 172, 179, 185, 199, 200, 219, 225], while only few
commercial WSNs exist. Most of the commercial WSNs are development kits or
radio modules necessitating engineering work in application development. Exam-
ples of development kit providers are Dust Networks, Inc. [48], Nanotron Technolo-
gies GmbH [116], Dynastream Innovations, Inc. [50], and Crossbow Technology,
Inc. [36]. Sensicast [166] also provides some end-to-end solutions with sensor inte-
grations and interfaces for external networks.
Since the application elds and their requirements for the network are diverse, WSN
implementations are application specic. The energy consumption, communication
bandwidth, and networking performance of nodes are optimized to execute a given
application task. There are a number of limitations in the current WSN products, both
1.1. WSN Technology Overview 3
Terminal
with UI
Database
Sinks with
gateways
Sensor elements
Inspected phenomenon
Hardware architecture
Wireless links
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Communication Computing Sensing
Radio
Power
Battery Voltage regulator
Application
server
Sink embedded in a
portable computer
Sensor
Sensor
MCU
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Fig. 2. Example WSN application scenario.
in software and hardware including power consumption, networking performance
and physical size [224]. Due to the limitations, existing WSN realizations can imple-
ment only a subset of the envisioned features, and a trade-off has been made between
energy consumption and data transfer performance.
For clarifying the characteristics of the WSN pursued in this Thesis, an example
scenario is depicted in Fig. 2. An arbitrary number of nodes are randomly deployed
in the area of an inspected phenomenon, where they self-congure network topology.
In the gure, all nodes are similar (homogenous) in their hardware. It is possible
that nodes are diverse (heterogenous) in their sensing, processing, and networking
capabilities, when nodes can be specialized in different tasks. The network contains
one or more sink nodes, which request other nodes to perform measurements, and
then collect measured values for further use. Data is routed in the network by a chain
of short and low-energy hops (multi-hop routing).
Sinks may operate in various locations in the network. Typically, a sink is integrated
with a gateway connecting WSN to an external network. An external computer net-
work may contain an application server that delivers applications for user terminals,
performs data processing, and handles access to a database. The external network can
also be another WSN operating e.g. at a different frequency band. A sink may also be
4 1. Introduction
Table 1. Component power consumptions and allowed activity levels.
Component Power consumption Allowed activity
Radio (reception) 50 - 100 mW 0.1 - 1%
Radio (transmission) 25 - 50 mW 0.1 - 1%
MCU 1 - 5 mW 1 - 5%
Sensors 0.5 - 10 mW 0.01 - 1%
All components (sleep) 5 - 100 W 100%
embedded in a portable computer providing a User Interface (UI). Moreover, nodes
making actuating decisions according to received information from other nodes are
sinks.
The focus of this Thesis is on low-energy WSNs, where long network lifetime is more
important than throughput, latency, and data processing performance. Network life-
time can be increased by using low-power hardware components and high-capacity
batteries. For clarifying the capability of current Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS)
components, an example node assembly targeting to long lifetime and small size is
presented [53, 152] . The node comprises a Micro-Controller Unit (MCU) having
around 1 Million Instructions Per Second (MIPS) processing speed, tens of kilobytes
program memory, few kilobytes data memory, and an Analog-to-Digital Converter
(ADC). In addition, the node contains a short-range radio, and a set of sensors. Sup-
ply power is obtained from AA-size batteries.
Assuming a target lifetime of one year using AA-size batteries, the available power
budget is around 1 mW. For reference, Table 1 presents the typical power consump-
tions of hardware components. For reaching the budget, allowed activity for trans-
missions, receptions, sensing and data processing is in the order of one percent, while
the rest of time must be spent in a low power sleep mode. In a sleep mode, a node
turns off the MCU and the radio such that only a low power wake up timer is active
to be able to wake up according to a schedule. Thus, a low-energy WSN implemen-
tation necessitates the combination of low-power hardware components with energy-
efcient protocols, which can eliminate the unnecessary activity of the hardware.
Wireless communication between nodes is enabled by network protocols. A protocol
is a set of rules, which dene what (semantics), how (syntax), and when (timing) to
communicate for exchanging data between two entities [177]. Network protocols are
typically divided into layers according to their responsibilities, and together they form
a protocol stack. Each layer has precisely dened interfaces, which permits exible
updates and changes in the software and hardware implementations in a modular
manner.
1.2. Key WSN Design Requirements 5
Multi-hop routing
Medium access control
Radio transceiver
Transport
Application
programming interface
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Fig. 3. A WSN protocol stack used in this Thesis.
An WSN protocol stack implementation used in this Thesis is presented in Fig. 3. A
radio transceiver (radio) transmits and receives messages one bit or symbol at a time
by making a conversion between digital data and analog symbols of the medium.
A Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol determines how and when to utilize ra-
dio functions for discovering network neighborhood, establishing wireless links, and
exchanging different frame types. A routing protocol creates multi-hop routing paths
between source and destination nodes, while the transport protocol implements end-
to-end ow control, if necessary. An Application Programming Interface (API) ab-
stracts the underlying communication and hardware for applications. Several appli-
cations may be executed in parallel, for example sensing, actuating, data fusion, and
node diagnostics.
1.2 Key WSN Design Requirements
The key design requirements of low-energy WSNs differ in many ways from tradi-
tional wireless computer networks. As presented in Table 2, high throughput and low
latency are the most critical requirements for wireless computer networks, e.g. IEEE
802.11 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) [79].
The most important design requirement for the low-energy WSN is resource con-
strained implementation. In this Thesis, WSN should be implementable in practice
using current COTS components. Due to the size, cost, and lifetime requirements
of applications, WSN nodes have scarce communication, computation, and energy
resources.
Another important requirement is networking performance. WSN should be adaptive
for ensuring network robustness in uncertain operation conditions, where network
6 1. Introduction
Table 2. Relation of requirements for wireless computer networks and low-energy WSNs.
Requirement Criticality for wireless Criticality for
computer networks low-energy WSNs
Resource constrained Low Very high
implementation
Adaptivity Low High
Scalability Moderate High
Fairness Moderate Moderate
Latency High Low
Throughput Very high Low
size, node locations, and Radio Frequency (RF) propagation conditions vary dynam-
ically. In order to enable mobile applications, network should tolerate node mobility
at a pedestrian walking speed. In addition, scalability to support various network
sizes up to tens of thousands of nodes, and node densities up to hundreds of active
nodes in a radio range is required.
Due to the characteristics of WSN applications, data transfer performance has lower
criticality than the above mentioned requirements. Fairness is desirable such that
all nodes can transmit data to sinks equally, and that all sinks can receive data from
nodes equally. A tolerable latency from nodes to a sink in a large network is even
minutes, while a sufcient throughput is in the order of one kbits/s.
Existing standards for wireless communications, such as cellular telephone networks,
WiMAX [215], IEEE 802.11 WLAN [79], and Bluetooth [20] are unsatisfactory
for WSNs due to their limited energy-efciency, scalability and adaptivity. IEEE
802.15.4 Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Network (LR-WPAN) can be congured
to a low-power operation mode and thus, it is a promising standard for enabling
WSNs [64]. Still, it has problems of combining the energy-efciency with adaptivity
and scalability required by many potential applications [118].
Although many protocols have been proposed for traditional wireless ad hoc net-
works [126], these protocols aim to provide good throughput and delay characteris-
tics. However, energy consumption takes up secondary importance, since batteries
can be easily replaced or charged when needed. Hence, these protocols cannot pro-
vide adequate energy-efciency for WSNs [5].
There are two wireless technologies, which can be categorized as low-end WSNs:
Radio Frequency Identication (RFID) and Near Field Communication (NFC). RFID
technology is typically seen as an intelligent version of the bar codes [75, 86]. In
1.3. Scope, Objectives and Methods of the Research 7
general, RFID tags can communicate with a high-power reader device only [27].
NFC technology can be seen as a contactless smart card reader and writer, which is
embedded in portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones. NFC devices can
form a simple peer-to-peer network and exchange data in a range of about 10 cm [29].
The suitability of these technologies for WSNs is severely limited due to their short
range, small network size, and limited networking capability.
1.3 Scope, Objectives and Methods of the Research
The scope of this research is on the MAC layer protocols and component-based sen-
sor node hardware prototypes (platforms) for low-energy WSNs. Applications and
upper protocol layers are covered only briey for evaluating the requirements for the
MAC and platform designs. Sensing, simulations, software design ow, and hard-
ware design of Integrated Circuits (ICs) are outside the scope of this Thesis.
The main objective of this Thesis is to solve the problems of resource constrained
WSN implementation and networking performance by a MAC layer design. An ob-
jective is to design feasible solutions for real deployments in harsh operation condi-
tions. For obtaining realistic and feasible results, the MAC layer is designed accord-
ing to the characteristics of current state-off-the-art low-power COTS components.
The methods for conducting the research results of this Thesis are presented in Fig.
4. In the rst phase, a literature review is carried out and target applications are
identied. At the same time, the capabilities and behavior of current state-of-the-
art hardware components are analyzed and the requirements for MAC design are
evaluated. According to this information, the initial version of a MAC design is
formulated.
Next, the performance of the MAC design and other MAC approaches are evaluated
by modeling them analytically. The performance of the approaches are analyzed and
compared, while varying protocol, network, and application parameters. According
to analysis results, the MAC design is rened.
As a potential MAC design is found, its feasibility is studied in real applications by
experimental measurements. An objective is to identify the non-ideal characteristics
of hardware components and radio environment. This information is used in the MAC
design for improving and optimizing its performance. Thus, real sensor node plat-
forms are designed and implemented using state-of-the-art commercial components.
The power consumptions and operation mode switching times of the platforms are
8 1. Introduction
Results of
this Thesis
Results of
this Thesis
Platform design
Platform design
Prototype
deployments and
measurements
Prototype
deployments and
measurements
Models
Models
Analysis of
hardware
components
Analysis of
hardware
components
Literature review
Literature review
Measured
network
performance
Measured
platform
performance
Analyzed
protocol
performance
Evaluation
of MAC
requirements
Evaluation
of MAC
requirements
Performance
analysis
Performance
analysis
MAC design
MAC design
Analysis of
results
Analysis of
results
Fig. 4. Methods for obtaining the results of this Thesis
back-annotated to the performance analysis phase for improving analysis accuracy
and for rening the MAC design.
Next, a prototype network is deployed and its performance is measured. The mea-
sured performance is used for improving and optimizing MAC and sensor node plat-
form designs.
As results, this Thesis presents MAC protocol designs and sensor node platforms,
which fulll the presented requirements of low energy WSNs.
1.4 Research Outcomes
The results of this Thesis are summarized in Fig. 5. The main contribution is a MAC
design for TUTWSN (Tampere University of Technology Wireless Sensor Network)
1.4. Research Outcomes 9
Results
Results
MAC designs
[P1]-[P4]
MAC designs
[P1]-[P4]
Sensor node
platforms
[P7]-[P10]
Sensor node
platforms
[P7]-[P10]
Performance
models
[P5]-[P6]
Performance
models
[P5]-[P6]
Models for
networking
mechanisms
Models for
networking
mechanisms
Models for
channel access
mechanisms
Models for
channel access
mechanisms
Networking
mechanisms
Networking
mechanisms
Channel access
mechanisms
Channel access
mechanisms
Fig. 5. Results of this Thesis.
([P1] - [P4]). The design comprises channel access and networking mechanisms.
While channel access mechanism denes mainly frame exchanges and link synchro-
nization, the networking mechanisms specify network self-conguration and neigh-
bor discovery mechanisms.
The second research outcome are sensor node platforms ([P7] - [P10]). Several plat-
forms have been designed and implemented to evaluate the performance of the MAC
design and hardware components in real deployments.
The third main outcome of the research are performance models for various channel
access and networking mechanisms ([P5], [P6]). MAC layer models are dened for
TUTWSN, IEEE 802.15.4, and the most essential research proposals. Besides indi-
cating the performance of the TUTWSN MAC design, the models are used for show-
ing the energy-efciency of the designed networking mechanisms for IEEE 802.15.4
[P3].
As a summary, the main contributions of the Thesis are:
- Asurvey of existing energy-efcient MACprotocols, standards, and low-power
sensor node platforms for WSNs.
- Energy-efcient and scalable channel access mechanism for a resource con-
strained WSN called TUTWSN MAC.
- Networking mechanisms for improving network adaptivity in dynamic envi-
ronments.
- Several low-power sensor node platforms for WSNs. The platforms enable real
WSN deployments and experimental performance evaluation.
10 1. Introduction
- Performance models and analysis of several MACdesigns including TUTWSN,
IEEE 802.15.4, and the most essential research proposals.
- Deployment cases that validate the analysis results and the feasibility of de-
signed mechanisms and platforms.
1.5 Thesis Outline
The Thesis consists of an introductory part and 10 publications [P1-P10]. The intro-
ductory part motivates the work, presents technical background, and summarizes and
analyzes the results. The main results are presented in the publications. Publication
[P1] presents the overview of MAC layer, while the results in details are presented in
publications [P2] - [P10]. The rest of the introductory part is organized as follows:
Chapter 2 presents the WSN application space and performed deployments. The
chapter includes also an overview of existing standards related to WSNs.
Chapter 3 discusses the design principles of sensor node platforms, and presents ex-
isting platforms. The chapter presents the characteristics of low-power components
and provides a basis for a MAC layer design.
Chapter 4 discusses the most essential MAC protocols for WSNs. The chapter pro-
vides a research background for TUTWSN MAC design.
Chapter 5 composes the research results of channel access and networking mecha-
nism.
Chapter 6 presents the research results of performance models considering the most
essential MAC layer designs for WSNs.
Chapter 7 presents the research results of sensor node platform designs and deploy-
ments cases.
Chapter 8 summarizes the publications included in the Thesis
Chapter 9 concludes the Thesis.
2. APPLICATIONS AND STANDARDS
This chapter presents the current state of WSN research in application development.
First, the design space of WSN applications is presented including application tasks
and usage classes. Then, the performed WSN deployments are discussed. As a refer-
ence, this chapter presents also existing standards for wireless communication. The
state of the research in sensor node platforms and MAC protocols will be presented
in the following chapters.
2.1 WSN Application Space
WSN application space is continuously emerging and extending together with the
development of low-power circuits and communication protocols. Potential appli-
cations have been found in home automation, environmental and industrial monitor-
ing, military, personal security, asset management, and trafc control [5, 32, 40, 88,
144, 146, 160]. WSN applications can execute one or more application tasks, which
are build upon the sensing, actuating, communication, and computing capabilities of
WSN nodes. The application tasks can be divided into ve categories [5, 66, 93]:
Data logging: Determine periodically the value of a physical quantity in a
given location, for example temperature, humidity and gas concentration.
Event detection: Detect the occurrence of an event of interest, for example
motion or the exceeding of a predetermined physical quantity.
Object classication: Identify an object or an event according to measure-
ments using different sensors.
Object tracking: Trace the movement, direction and speed of an object ac-
cording to measurements at different locations.
Control: Control an actuator according to commands or measured sensor val-
ues within the network, for example a valve and an electrical switch.
12 2. Applications and Standards
Wireless data networks can be classied into six classes according to message la-
tency and reliability requirements, as presented in Table 3 [83]. The classication is
referred for clarifying the application space of WSNs.
The classes 5 - 4 are categorized as monitoring networks. The class 5 has the lightest
message latency requirements, and it is suitable for data logging networks. Rather
long delays are tolerated and some messages can be missed. The class 4 has slightly
higher latency requirements and no messages should be missed. The class 4 is suit-
able for agging networks performing event detection tasks.
The classes 3 - 1 are categorized as control networks. The class 3 contains open-
loop control networks, where a human is in the loop. The class 2 contains closed
loop supervisory control for non-critical control tasks. The class 1 networks perform
closed loop regulatory control, where the criticality for latency and reliability is very
high.
Class 0 contains safety networks having the highest requirements for message latency
and reliability. These networks are used for emergency action.
The low-energy WSNs discussed in this Thesis are suitable for the classes 4 and 5,
and the class 3 will be reached in the near future. The highest energy-efciency and
scalability are achieved at the class 5. As the requirements for latency and reliabil-
ity raise, the need for a centralized network management also increases limiting the
scalability and energy-efciency.
Table 3. Usage classes of wireless data networks.
Class Description Criticality of Suitability of
latency and current low-
reliability energy WSNs
0 Emergency action Always critical Very low
1 Closed loop regulatory control Often critical Very low
2 Closed loop supervisory control Often non-critical Low
3 Open loop control Non-critical Moderate
4 Flagging Non-critical High
5 Data logging Non-critical Very high
2.2. Deployments 13
Table 4. Examples of experimental WSN deployments.
Deployment Year Scale Duration Data Node MAC Power
(months) period platform protocol (mW)
GDI [185] 2003 98 3.8 20 min Mica2Dot B-MAC 1.6
Vineyard [16] 2003 65 6 5 min Mica2 CSMA 58
Macroscope [199] 2004 33 1.5 5 min Mica2Dot CSMA 1.5-6.3
ZebraNet [225] 2004 7 12 8 min custom Z-MAC 30-70
Heathland [200] 2005 24 0.5 1 hour ESB CSMA 30
SensorScope [13] 2007 17 1.5 2 min Tiny node S-MAC N/A
2.2 Deployments
To illustrate potential application types in practice, fewinteresting WSNdeployments
are presented. The presented deployments have been selected according to the fol-
lowing requirements: networks should utilize multi-hop networking, and the deploy-
ment duration should be at least one week. The deployments are summarized in Table
4. The columns of the table give an overview and characteristics of the deployments.
Focus is on the network size, duration of the deployment, utilized sensor node plat-
form and MAC protocol, and average power consumption of nodes. The data period
presents the activity of the network giving the frequency of data communication.
A deployment on Great Duck Island (GDI) [185] monitors the occupancy of small,
underground nesting burrows and the role of micro-climatic factors in their habitat
selection on an offshore breading colony. A 115 days long deployment in 2003 com-
prised 98 Mica2Dot [38] motes, which executed Berkeley Media Access Control (B-
MAC) [129] protocol. Data was collected at 20 minutes intervals, and forwarded
to a sink by multi-hop routing. The deployment indicated that most links are short
lived: the median link is used to deliver only 13 packets. The packet loss was very
signicant, since nearly half of packets were lost during routing. Node lifetimes var-
ied from 1 to 110 days causing connectivity problems for the network. The average
power consumption was around 1.6 mW.
A temperature monitoring network deployed in a vineyard for 6 a months period in
2003 is presented in [16]. The deployment employed 65 Mica2 [37] motes, which ex-
ecuted TinyOS [58] protocol stack including a Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA)
type MAC layer. Their data was collected at 5 minutes intervals and multi-hop routed
to a base station. Nodes utilized large 42 Ah battery packs. The reported lifetimes of
routing nodes were about 3 months. According to the battery capacity, the calculated
power consumption of routing nodes was 58 mW. The deployment demonstrated that
a WSN brings value to an agricultural setting and that the total cost of a WSN is
lower than a wired data logger type network.
Macroscope [199] deployment recorded temperature, humidity, and solar radiation
on the surface of a 70-meter tall redwood tree during 44 days period in the summer
of 2004. The deployment consisted 33 Mica2Dot [38] motes, which collected data
at 5 minutes intervals and multi-hop routed the data to a sink node. Nodes utilized
TASK [26] protocol stack including a CSMA type MAC layer. The lifetime of the
nodes using 560 mAh batteries were 11 to 44 days. Thus, the calculated power
consumptions were between 1.5 mW and 6.4 mW. The experiment indicated that the
network suffered from high packet loss, especially at nodes far from the sink. The
packet loss was most probably caused by collisions.
ZebraNet [225] experiment tracked animal movements in Kenya on an area of 36
km
2
. Seven nodes were attached on Zebras, and their locations were tracked during
12 months in 2004. Global Positioning System (GPS) was activated at 8 minutes pe-
riods at a time, and the data was multi-hop routed to a base station. Nodes comprised
a low power MCU, a 900 MHz radio and a GPS receiver, and they executed Zebra
MAC (Z-MAC) [143] protocol. The power consumptions of nodes were between 30
mW and 70 mW. Each node was powered by a rechargeable battery and a 200 grams
solar panel. The experiment indicated that harsh operation conditions and the lack of
a large ground plane reduced radio range signicantly.
Heathland experiment [200] in Northern Germany analyzed wireless communication
in an outdoor environment in March 2005. The deployment comprised 24 ESB [157]
nodes, which formed a multi-hop network. The MAC protocol was based on a sim-
ple CSMA [91]. Data collection interval was 1 hour. As nodes were powered by
three AA batteries, node lifetimes near the sink were 16 days. Thus, their power
consumptions were around 30 mW. The experiment demonstrated that the quality of
radio links varies considerably in the long run. The required adaptive protocols can
be evaluated only in eld trials.
SensorScope [13] measured the hydrological model of the Grand Saint Bernard pass
during a 1.5 months period in 2007. The pass is 2400 m high and located in the Alps
between Switzerland and Italy. In the deployment, 17 Tiny nodes [47] were located
on a 900 m long line, and they measured humidity values at 120 s intervals. Nodes ex-
ecuted Sensor-MAC (S-MAC) [220] type channel access and multi-hop routed data
to a sink having General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) connectivity. The network
suffered from signicant packet losses, which were mostly caused by hardware mal-
functions.
2.3. Standards 15
Most of the performed deployments have been targeted for environmental monitor-
ing, where data gathering interval has been several minutes. The scale of long-
term WSN deployments has been tens of nodes. The average power consumption
of nodes has ranged between 1.5 mW and 58 mW, and adequate network lifetime
has been achieved by using large battery packs or solar panels [16, 225]. Common
problems in the deployments have been unequal power consumption of nodes and
weak tolerance against harsh operation conditions, network dynamics, and conges-
tion [199, 200, 225].
Commercial networks are still rare and detailed information about their performance
is not available. Most of them are development kits or radio modules necessitating
engineering work in application development, for example Dust Networks, Inc. [48],
Nanotron Technologies GmbH [116], Dynastream Innovations, Inc. [50], and Cross-
bow Technology, Inc. [36]. Sensicast [166] provides also various sensors and inter-
faces for external networks.
2.3 Standards
There exist numerous standards for wireless communication technologies for en-
abling inter-operability between products fromdifferent manufacturers. For end users
the utilization of standards provides many benets in technology support, product
availability, and expandability. In this Thesis, the standards set a starting point and
reference for the research. Next, the current status of standards is discussed in the
WSN point of view, and the need for a proprietary solution is reasoned.
2.3.1 Wireless Communication Standards
The classication of standards originated by IEEE categorizes wireless communica-
tion technologies according to their range, data rate, and power consumption [75, 76,
170]. The categories of existing wireless technologies are presented in Table 5. The
presented value ranges are not absolute but merely indicative [27, 64, 75, 111, 214].
Although WSN is not included in the conventional IEEE originated classication, it
is presented for comparison.
Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWANs) provide the widest geographical cover-
age. The most well-known WWANs are digital cellular telephone networks, such
as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and their extensions for data
services, e.g. GPRS, and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS).
Also communication satellites belong to this category.
Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs) are emerging technologies devel-
oped to specify broadband wireless access as an alternative to cable networks and
Digital Subscriber Lines (DSLs). Thus, the provided data rates are much higher
than in WWANs. WMAN is often called Wordwide Interoperability for Microwave
Access (WiMAX) by an industry group called the WiMAX forum. Examples of
WMANs are IEEE 802.16 and its mobile extensions.
WLANs were originally developed for extending or replacing wired computer Local
Area Networks (LANs). Currently, WLAN is widely employed for providing net-
work access with location freedom in homes, public buildings and enterprises, and
for municipal public network implementations. The dominating WLAN technology
is IEEE 802.11 [79] with its numerous extensions for higher communication speeds,
Quality of Service (QoS) support, security, and mesh networking.
Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) are generally targeted at data commu-
nications between personal devices, including Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs),
mobile phones, headsets, and laptops. The most well-known and mature WPAN tech-
nology is Bluetooth [20], which is also known as IEEE 802.15.1 [80]. The WPAN
category also includes two emerging standards: an IEEE 802.15.3 [81] standard for
higher data rate multimedia content delivery, and an IEEE 802.15.4 [82] standard for
low-rate and low-power communications. WPANs include very wide range of appli-
cations, and their characteristics are not clearly distinct from WLANs, sharing the
same operational environments and application domains. The differences are in the
non-functional requirements, such as cost, power, and networking range.
Table 5. Categorization of wireless communication technologies.
Range Data rate Power Example
consumption technologies
WWAN > 10 km < 10 Mbits/s medium/high GSM, GPRS, UMTS, satellite
WMAN < 10 km < 100 Mbits/s high IEEE 802.16, HIPERMAN
WLAN < 100 m < 100 Mbits/s medium IEEE 802.11, HIPERLAN/2
WPAN < 10 m < 10 Mbits/s low Bluetooth, IEEE 802.15.4
WSN < 1 km < 100 kbits/s ultra-low Proprietary, IEEE 802.15.4
2.3. Standards 17
2.3.2 Standards Related to WSNs
In contrast to WLANs and WPANs, WSNs are envisioned to have much more net-
work devices, which are application-oriented rather than measured by the coverage
of a single radio cell or the nominal capacity of a link [5, 88]. WSNs nodes are
stand-alone stations without the need or even possibility for human intervention. The
network performance is measured as its capability to serve the implemented appli-
cations. Depending on the application, the data rate of a single node varies from
few bits/s to hundreds of kilobits/s, and network coverage ranges from centimeters to
several kilometers [94]. There is no pre-existing physical infrastructure that restricts
the topology. Messages should not be sent to individual nodes but to geographical
locations or regions dened by data content [178]. As resources are constrained, the
feasibility of WSN lies on the joint effort of the nodes [178]. The most potential
standardized technologies for realizing WSNs are ZigBee [64, 229], and emerging
ISA-SP100.11a [83].
ZigBee AND IEEE 802.15.4
ZigBee [229] is an open specication for low data-rate wireless control and moni-
toring networks, where low-power consumption is a key requirement. The candidate
applications are wireless sensors, lighting controls, and surveillance. The rst ver-
sion of the ZigBee specication was announced in December 2004. A renement of
the specication has been launched in December 2006 [55, 131].
ZigBee builds upon the MAC and Physical (PHY) layers dened by IEEE 802.15.4
LR-WPAN, as presented in Fig. 6 [70]. IEEE 802.15.4 is responsible for the channel
access mechanism, acknowledged frame delivery, network association, and disasso-
ciation.
A Network (NWK) layer provides network self-organization and multi-hop routing
capability. NWK performs route discovery and maintenance, and message relaying
functions. NWK can initiate a new network and assign network addresses to new
nodes associating with the network for the rst time. A Security Service Provider
(SSP) offers security functions including Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) en-
cryption, key generation, key distribution, authentication and access control lists
[227]. Overall node management is performed by a ZigBee Device Object (ZDO).
Application endpoints may call ZDO in order to discover other ZigBee nodes on the
network and services they offer, and to dene security and network settings. An Ap-
plication Support (APS) sub-layer connects NWK, SSP and endpoints, and routes
messages to different endpoints. An application layer at the top of the stack de-
termines node relationships, and supervises network initiation and association func-
tions. The application layer contains application proles, which dene the format of
exchanged messages for a given applications. ZigBee denes a set of public proles
for common application scenarios. In addition, vendors may add additional features
with private proles [211].
IEEE 802.15.4 denes two Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) radio types
operating in Industrial, Scientic, Medicine (ISM) frequency bands. A low-band
PHY operates in the 868 MHz or 915 MHz frequency band and has a data-rate of
20 kbps or 40 kbps, respectively. A high-band PHY operating in the 2.4 GHz band
species a data-rate of 250 kbps.
IEEE 802.15.4 denes three types of logical devices, a Personal Area Network (PAN)
coordinator, a coordinator, and a device. PAN coordinator is the primary controller
of PAN, which initiates the network and operates often as a gateway to other net-
works. Each PAN must have exactly one PAN coordinator. Coordinators collaborate
with each other for executing data routing and network self-organization operations.
Devices do not have data routing capability and they can communicate only with
coordinators.
Besides star and peer-to-peer network topologies, ZigBee supports a cluster-tree
topology. The network consists of clusters, each having a coordinator as a cluster
head and multiple devices as leaf nodes. A PAN coordinator initiates the network
and serves as the sink. The network is formed by parent-child relationships, where
new nodes associate as children with the existing coordinators. This well-dened
structure simplies multi-hop routing and allows energy saving on the MAC layer.
The applicability of ZigBee on WSN applications is limited by scalability, the energy
consumption of coordinators, and the support for one sink only.
Application
NWK
MAC
PHY
ZigBee Platform
IEEE 802.15.4
ZDO
App Support (APS)
SSP
Application objects
Endpoints
ZigBee Applications
Fig. 6. ZigBee protocol stack.
2.3. Standards 19
MiWi
MiWi [57] developed by Microchip is a simpler version of ZigBee operating above
a IEEE 802.15.4 compliant radio. MiWi is suitable for smaller networks having at
most 1024 nodes. Supported network topologies are star and mesh. Simplications
for ZigBee stack reduces the cost of MCU even 40% - 60%. A disadvantage is
that MiWi does not support the low duty-cycle mode of ZigBee. Thus, the energy
consumption of MiWi is too high for most of WSN applications.
Z-Wave
Z-Wave [151] is another simpler version of ZigBee operating at 868 MHz and 915
MHz frequency bands. The maximum number of nodes in a network is 232. Sup-
ported network topologies are star and mesh. The suitability of Z-Wave for WSN ap-
plications is limited by scalability, and energy-efciency, since the cluster-tree topol-
ogy with power saving features is not supported.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth [20] is a wireless technology specied by the Bluetooth Special Interest
Group (SIG). IEEE has standardized the MAC and PHY layers of Bluetooth as IEEE
802.15.1 [80]. Originally, it was only intended as a simple serial cable replacement
for electronic devices. Presently, the technology supports various more advanced
functionalities, such as ad hoc networking and access point operation for Internet
connections.
Bluetooth operates in the 2.4 GHz unlicensed ISM band and utilizes the Frequency
Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) technique in the radio interface [20]. Current
versions have up to 3 Mbps data rate, while the link range is from 10 cm to 100 m.
A network composed of Bluetooth devices is called a piconet, which consists of a
master and up to seven slave devices. Piconets can be linked together to form a larger
network, known as scatternet. The applicability of Bluetooth in WSN applications is
limited by scalability and energy consumption.
Ultra-Low-Power Bluetooth
Ultra-Low-Power Bluetooth (ULPB) [19, 212] is a light-weight version of Bluetooth.
It has been announced by Nokia Corp as Wibree at October 2006. ULPB is operating
at 2.4 GHz frequency band and it supports a star network topology with one master
and seven slave nodes. For reducing the power consumption and expenses, ULPB
utilizes lower transmission power and lower symbol rate. It is expected frequency
hopping is not utilized, either. It is expected that the ULPB can reduce the power
consumption of Bluetooth to one tenth.
ULPB may have a common RF part with Bluetooth making its integration into cel-
lular phones and laptop computers cheaper. Yet, small devices, such as watches and
sport sensors may utilize just a ULPB radio. Hence, ULPB can connect together
two market segments: devices having Bluetooth and simple devices for which Blue-
tooth is too powerful and energy consuming. Yet, the applicability of ULPB in WSN
applications is limited by scalability and network coverage.
ANT
ANT [49] developed by Dynastream Innovations is a simple low data-rate and low-
latency technology specifying PHY, MAC and NWK layers. ANT operates at 2.4
GHz frequency band and has 1 Mbps radio data rate. ANT network is based on a
star-topology, but more complex topologies can be achieved by using several chan-
nels: each node can be simultaneously a master and a slave on different channels.
Master nodes always receive, while slaves transmit when new data is provided. A
practical limit for network size is few thousands nodes. The disadvantages of ANT
are high power consumption in master nodes and lowscalability due to randomaccess
transmissions. These limit the usability of ANT in large multi-hop WSNapplications.
WirelessHART
WirelessHART [67] is an open wireless communication standard ratied in 2007
by the HART Communication Foundation [67]. WirelessHART is specically de-
signed for process measurement and control applications having stringent require-
ments for end-to-end communication delay, reliability, and security [176]. Wire-
lessHART utilizes a time-synchronized TDMA MAC on top of the IEEE 802.15.4
physical layer. MAC employs network wide time synchronization, channel hopping,
channel blacklisting, and AES encryption. WirelessHART utilizes a self-organizing
multi-hop mesh network with centralized control. For guaranteeing network per-
formance, a central network manager is responsible for route updates and commu-
nication scheduling for entire network. The suitability of WirelessHART on WSN
applications is limited. The centralized control of TDMA schedule and routes limits
2.3. Standards 21
network size and the tolerance against network dynamics. The centralized control
causes a signicant control frame overhead increasing network energy consumption.
ISA-SP100.11a
ISA-SP100.11a [83] is an emerging standard for non-critical process industry appli-
cations, where tolerable delays are in the order of 100 ms. Target applications include
sensors, valves and actuators having low data rate requirements [197]. The standard
is expected to be published during 2008 [213]. Later versions of the standard will
also address factory automation and building automation [83]. Similarly with Wire-
lessHART, ISA100.11a utilizes time synchronized TDMA and frequency hopping
with channel blacklisting on top of the IEEE 802.15.4 physical layer. ISA-SP100.11a
supports multi-hop routing in a mesh topology and battery powered routers. In con-
trast to WirelessHART, ISA-SP100.11a species utilization of multiple gateways and
exible TDMA slot length for improving data routing performance [22]. It is ex-
pected that ISA-SP100.11a will be a suitable technology for some WSN applications,
too. The usability in WSN applications is possible limited by scalability, energy con-
sumption, and tolerance against network dynamics.
IEEE 1451 Standard Family
IEEE 1451 is a suite of smart transducer interface standards, which describes com-
munication interfaces for connecting sensors and actuators (transducers) to micro-
processors, instrumentation systems, and networks.
IEEE 1451 denes two terms: Transducer Interface Module (TIM) and Network
Capable Application Processor (NCAP). TIM is a device, which contains a set of
transducers, signal conditioning and data conversion circuitry, and software modules.
They consist of IEEE 1451 standard modules and a standardized wireless or wired
network technology. NCAP is any kind of network-connected computing device,
which receives data from a set of TIMs.
IEEE 1451.0 standard denes the functional specication of TIM, the discovery and
management of TIMs, and a set of sensor API calls with message exchange protocols
and commands required for interfacing with transducers. In addition, IEEE 1451.0
denes a Transducer Electronic Data Sheet (TEDS), which is used to describe the
entire TIM including transducer, signal conditioner and data converter. Hence, TEDS
eliminates error prone, manual entering of data and system conguration and allows
transducers to be installed, upgraded, replaced or moved by plug-and-play principle.
IEEE 1451 supports numerous standardized technologies to establish wired and wire-
less connections between NCAP and TIMs by IEEE 1451.2 through IEEE 1451.6.
IEEE 1451.2 denes wired point-to-point communication through UART or a Trans-
ducer Independent Interface (TII). IEEE 1451.3 denes distributed multi-drop sys-
tem, where a large number of TIMs may be connected along a wired multi-drop bus.
IEEE 1451.4 species mixed-mode communication protocols, which carry analog
sensor values with digital TEDS data. IEEE 1451.6 denes a high-speed Controller
Area Network (CAN) bus. IEEE 1451.5 standard [77] denes wireless sensors and
thus, it is most closely related with WSNs. Supported communication technologies
are IEEE 802.11a/b/g, IEEE 801.15.1 and IEEE 802.15.4.
Conclusion of Standards
Current standards for wireless communications are diverse, but none of these cover
the entire WSN application space [93]. Currently, ZigBee and its variations are the
most potential standardized technologies for WSNs. Their feasibility is mostly lim-
ited by the energy consumption of routers, scalability, and inadequate performance
in dynamic networks. Yet, standards are improving and new standards are emerging
continuously. One of the most interesting upcoming standards is the ISA-SP100.11a,
which will most probably cover most of the application areas of ZigBee.
One of the most difcult challenges in WSN is to develop energy-efcient MAC layer
protocols for very large and dynamically changing networks. This area is not covered
by the current standards and the upcoming standards released in the near future. This
area has been selected as the main focus in this Thesis.
3. SENSOR NODE PLATFORMS
Sensor node platforms implement the physical layer (hardware) of the protocol stack.
In conventional wireless networks, such as WLANs, hardware affects very signif-
icantly on the achieved performance and the energy consumption of network ter-
minals. In WSNs, the energy-efciency is implemented mostly by the MAC layer,
which at best can reduce the activity of a hardware to below 1% in low data-rate
monitoring applications. Clearly, it is important to minimize hardware power con-
sumption in active operation modes. Even more important is to minimize the power
consumption in idle and sleep modes, which may dominate the power consumption
and limit network lifetime in very low data-rate applications. Next, suitable low-
power hardware components and existing sensor node platforms are discussed.
3.1 Platform Components
WSN applications typically necessitate small and cheap hardware realization having
the battery lifetime in the order of years. The given requirements for are fullled
best by Application Specic Integrated Circuits (ASICs), which performcomputation
powerfully and energy-efciently by an application specic hardware [133]. Small
physical size is achieved, since a single System-on-Chip (SoC) circuit contains all
essential digital circuits. Due to high design and initial costs, and xed hardware,
ASIC suits best for implementing a mature and standardized technology having very
high production volumes. For WSNs, COTS components are often the most feasible
option. From now on, the focus will be on COTS based hardware components.
A general hardware architecture of a sensor node platform is presented in Fig. 7. The
architecture can be divided into four subsystems:
Communication subsystem enabling wireless communication,
Computing subsystem allowing data processing and the management of node
functionality,
24 3. Sensor Node Platforms
Communication
subsystem
Computing
subsystem
Sensing
subsystem
Radio
transceiver
Radio
transceiver
Power subsystem
Energy storage
Energy storage
Voltage regulator
Voltage regulator
MCU
MCU
Core
Core
Flash
Flash
SRAM
SRAM
EEPROM
EEPROM
ADC
ADC
Timer
Timer
I/O ports
I/O ports
Energy scavenging unit
Energy scavenging unit
Actuator
Actuator
Digital
sensor
Digital
sensor
Analog
sensor
Analog
sensor
Power Data
Fig. 7. Sensor node hardware architecture.
Sensing subsystem connecting the wireless sensor node to the outside world,
Power subsystem providing the system supply voltage.
The central component of the platform is MCU that forms the computing subsystem.
In addition, the protocols of communication and sensing subsystems are executed on
MCU.
3.1.1 Communication subsystem
The communication subsystem consists of a wireless transceiver and an antenna. A
wireless transceiver can be based on acoustic, optical or RF waves. Acoustic commu-
nication is typically used for communication under water [92] or to measure distances
based on time-of-ight measurements [15]. The disadvantages of acoustic commu-
nication are long and variable propagation delay, high path loss, noise, and very low
data rate, which limit the achieved energy-efciency. Also, a large external antenna is
needed. In mobile networks, Doppler spread is signicant reducing the data rate [92].
Optical communication [46, 216] has low energy consumption especially in recep-
tion mode, and it can utilize very small antenna. A transmitter can be implemented
by a Light Emitting Diode (LED) or a laser, and a receiver by a photo diode. How-
ever, radiation is highly directional and a Line-of-Sight (LOS) condition is required.
3.1. Platform Components 25
Hence, the alignment of a transmitter to a receiver is difcult or even impossible in
large-scale WSN applications [216].
RF communication combines the benets of high data rate, long range and nearly
omni-directional radiation, which make it the most suitable for WSNs. Disadvan-
tages are large antenna size, and higher energy consumption compared to optical
technology [46].
In general, an RF transceiver (radio) has four operation modes: transmit, receive, idle,
and sleep. Radio is active in transmit and receive modes, when power consumption
is also the highest. In idle mode, most of circuitry is shut down, but main oscillators
remain active. Thus, the transition to the active mode is fast. The lowest power
consumption is achieved in sleep mode, when all circuitry is switched off. Also, the
transient time to the active mode is relatively long [P7].
Most short-range radios utilized with WSNs operate in the 433, 868, 915, and 2400
MHz license-free ISM frequency bands. The operating frequency affects RF wave
propagation characteristics. In industry, the 2400 MHz band is benecial, since the
interferences emitted from the machinery are signicant below few hundred mega-
hertz and drops rapidly above 1 GHz frequency [136]. The 2400 MHz band is also
the widest providing more channels and typically higher data rate than the lower ISM
bands. Depending on the frequency band and antenna type, operating range with 1
mW Transmit (TX) power is from few meters to hundreds meters [P7]. The charac-
teristics of the most potential commercial low power radios are summarized in Table
6 [P7]. Microchip, Nordic Semiconductor, and Texas Instruments utilize on-chip
buffers for the adaptation of a high-speed radio with a low-speed MCU [P7]. Current
consumptions are specied at the lowest band and 0 dBm transmission power. The
table indicates that data rate and frequency band has only a low effect on current con-
sumption. The last two paragraphs present the energy consumption of a received and
transmitted bit of data, which are determined using 3.0 V supply voltage. The com-
parison indicates that radios operating at the 2.4 GHz frequency band are the most
energy-efcient, which is mostly caused by their high data rates.
3.1.2 Computing subsystem
Computing subsystem consists of MCU, which integrates a processor core with pro-
gram and data memories, timers, congurable I/O ports, ADC and other peripher-
als. Program memory is typically Flash, while data memory consists of Static Ran-
dom Access Memory (SRAM) and Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only
Table 6. Radio features, current consumptions, and energy efciencies.
Radio Data rate Band Buffer Sleep RX TX RX TX
(kbps) (MHz) (B) (A) (mA) (mA) (nJ/b) (nJ/b)
MC MRF24J40 [107] 250 2400 128 2 18 22 264 216
NS nRF2401A [120] 1000 2400 32 0.9 19.0 13.0 39 57
NS nRF24L01 [121] 2000 2400 32 0.9 12.3 11.3 17 18
NS nRF905 [122] 50 433-915 32 2.5 14.0 12.5 750 840
RFM TR1001 [141] 115.2 868 no 0.7 3.8 12 313 99
RFM TR3100 [142] 576 433 no 0.7 7.0 10 52 36
SE XE1201A [163] 64 433 no 0.2 6.0 11.0 516 281
SE XE1203F [165] 152.3 433-915 no 0.2 14.0 33.0 650 276
TI CC2400 [193] 1000 2400 32 1.5 24.0 19.0 57 72
TI CC2420 [194] 250 2400 128 1 18.8 17.4 209 226
TI CC2500 [189] 500 2400 64 0.4 17.0 21.2 127 102
TI CC1000 [192] 76.8 433-915 no 0.2 9.3 10.4 406 363
TI CC1020 [187] 153.6 433-915 no 0.2 19.9 16.2 316 389
TI CC1100 [188] 500 433-915 64 0.4 16.5 15.5 93 99
Abbreviations: Microchip (MC), Nordic Semiconductor (NS), RF Monolithics (RFM), Semtech (SE),
Texas Instruments (TI)
Memory (EEPROM). The characteristics of potential MCU from different manufac-
turers are compared in Table 7. The energy-efciencies of MCUs can be compared
according to their current consumption at one MIPS processing speed. Since the in-
struction set affects the performance, only orders of magnitude are important [128].
The comparison indicates that Semtech XE8802 and TI MSP430F1611 MCUs have
are the most energy-efcient [P7].
Table 7. The comparison of the features of low power MCUs.
MCU FLASH SRAM EEPROM Sleep 1 MIPS
(kB) (kB) (B) (A) (mA)
Atmel AT89C51RE2 (8051) [11] 128 8 0 75 7.4
Atmel ATmega103L (AVR) [9] 128 4 4096 1 1.38
Atmel AT91FR40162S (ARM) [10] 2048 256 0 400 0.96
Cypress CY8C29666 [41] 32 2 0 5 10
Freescale M68HC08 [59] 61 2 0 22 3.75
Microchip PIC18LF8722 [106] 128 3.9 1024 2.32 1.0
Microchip PIC24FJ128 [108] 128 8 0 21 1.6
Semtech XE8802 (CoolRisc) [164] 22 1 0 1.9 0.3
TI MSP430F1611 [190] 48 10 0 1.3 0.33
3.1. Platform Components 27
3.1.3 Sensing subsystem
Sensing subsystem consists of a set of sensors and actuators. The sensors observe
phenomena such as thermal, optic, or acoustic event. They are equipped with an
analog or digital interfacing for reading sensor values [3].
There exists a large variety of low power sensors suitable for WSNs. For example,
sensors are available for acceleration, air pressure, humidity, illumination, infra-red,
magnetic eld, geographic position, and temperature. Important requirements for
sensors are low power consumption and short sensing time, which determine the en-
ergy consumption of a single sensing. In addition, adequate accuracy is required
within the entire temperature range. The features of some example sensors are pre-
sented in Table 8. Most of the sensors fulll the requirements well. The suitability of
a GPS position sensor for WSNs is questionable due to high energy consumption.
A WSN node can also operate as a decision unit, which takes sensor readings from
the WSN as input and generates action commands as output. These action commands
are then transformed into actions by actuators [3]. Besides an electric switch and a
servo drive, an actuator can be a mobile robot. In order to improve the reliability of
actions, the robot can be a WSN node and act based on its own sensor readings and
the data of the other WSN nodes in the network [3, 45].
3.1.4 Power subsystem
The power subsystem stores supply energy and converts it to an appropriate supply
voltage level. The subsystem consists of an energy storage, a voltage regulator, and
possible an energy scavenging unit.
Table 8. Features of typical sensors.
Physical Example sensor Accuracy Active Sensing Energy
quantity current time cons.
Acceleration VTI SCA3000 [204] 1% 120 A 10 ms 3.6 J
Air pressure VTI SCP1000 [205] 150 Pa 25 A 110 ms 8.3 J
Humidity Sensorion SHT15 [167] 2% 300 A 210 ms 190 J
Illumination Avago APDS-9002 [12] 50% 2.0 mA 1.0 ms 6.0 J
Infra-red Fuji MS-320 [60] - 35 A cont. -
Magnetic eld Hitachi HM55B [74] 5% 9.0 mA 30 ms 810 J
Position Fastrax iTRAX03 [56] 1.0 m 32 mA 4.0 s 380 mJ
Temperature Dallas DS620U [42] 0.5
C 800 A 200 ms 480 J

The energy storage can be a non-rechargeable (primary) battery, a rechargeable (sec-
ondary) battery, or a supercapacitor. Primary batteries are cheap and have the highest
energy density. They are the most common power source for WSNs. Secondary bat-
teries have lower energy density and are more expensive, but they can be recharged
500 - 1000 times. Secondary batteries are suitable, if batteries can be recharged
occasionally. Generally, supercapacitors are capacitors having very high capaci-
tance. Compared to secondary batteries, supercapacitors have lower energy density
and they are more expensive. However, their lifetime is in the order of a million
charging/discharging cycles. Supercapacitors are suitable to be used with an energy
generator, since energy is typically generated in peaks during short periods of time,
and the amount of stored energy can be relatively low.
The most potential sources for energy scavenging are photovoltaics and vibrations
[149]. Solar cells are mature technology and they can provide up to 15 mW/cm
3
power at outdoor conditions. In indoor conditions, achieved power reduces to 10
W/cm
3
. A promising method for converting vibration to source power is a piezo-
electric conversion. Commonly occurring vibrations can provide up to 200 W / cm
3
power [150]. Other possible energy sources are temperature gradients (40 W/cm
3
at
5

C temperature differential) [127, 180] and air ow (380 W/cm
3
at 5 m/s) [149].
A voltage regulator stabilizes system supply voltage to an appropriate and constant
level. In order to minimizing static current consumptions, it is reasonable to use the
minimum supply voltage specied by system components. The scarce energy budget
sets strict requirements also for the voltage regulator. A typical current consumption
waveform measured from two Tampere University of Technology Wireless Sensor
Network (TUTWSN) nodes is presented in Fig. 8. The nodes are typically over 99%
of time in a sleep mode. The regulator must be able to supply short peaks of relatively
high, tens of milliamperes currents, while the quiescent current consumption must be
very low.
Voltage regulators can be divided into linear and switched-mode regulators. Linear
regulators control the output voltage by adjusting the voltage drop across a series
power transistor, which is located between the unregulated input and the regulated
output voltage. This transistor conducts continuously and the energy of voltage drop
is converted to heat. Thus, linear regulators are simple, cheap, small and have very
low electromagnetic interferences and quiescent current [115].
Switched-mode step-down type regulators convert and input voltage to a lower out-
put voltage by a switching transistor that is opened and closed periodically. Then, the
switching current is fed to a simple coil-capacitor (L-C) lter and a diode, which aver-
3.2. Existing Platforms 29
Subnode
Headnode
10 A
20 mA
Fig. 8. Measured current waveform from TUTWSN subnode and headnode.
age the output voltage. Thus, the energy loss of the regulator is theoretically zero. In
practice, some energy is consumed in the voltage drops, resistances and leakage cur-
rents of the switching transistor, diode, coil and capacitor, and for the supply power of
a controller circuitry. Compared to linear regulators, switching mode regulators are
more expensive and larger, and have signicantly higher electromagnetic emissions
and quiescent current [115].
Switched-mode regulators provide higher energy-efciency, when the supply current
and dropout voltage are high. Yet, in WSN applications linear regulators are more
energy-efcient due to the low average supply current levels. For comparing the
performance of linear (L) and switched-mode (S) regulators, Table 9 presents the
features of some of the lowest power regulators available on the market.
3.2 Existing Platforms
Sensor node platforms have been improved signicantly during the last decade along
with the advances in low power processing and communication technology. Due to
the strict energy constrains, and the visions of complex networking and data fusion, it
is very challenging to fulll all the requirements with the current level of technology.
Thus, the platform research can be divided into two branches: high performance
platforms, and low power platforms [72].
Table 9. Features of low-power voltage regulators.
Regulator Type Quiescent Max. load Max. input Dropout
current (A) (mA) (V) (mV)
Maxim MAX1725 [102] L 2.0 20 12.0 300
Maxim MAX8880 [103] L 3.5 200 12.0 350
Microchip MCP1702 [110] L 2.0 250 13.2 330
Minilogic ML62 [113] L 2.8 150 10 800
SII S-1206 [162] L 1.0 250 6.5 350
TI TPS71501 [195] L 3.2 50 24 415
Analogic Tech AAT1112 [1] S 42 1500 5.5 200
Microchip MCP1603 [109] S 45 500 5.5 250
TI TPS62000 [191] S 50 600 5.5 230
The high performance platforms have been developed for researching complex data
processing and fusion in sensor nodes. The design target has been the reduction of
transmitted data by efcient data processing. These platforms utilize high perfor-
mance processors having at least tens of MIPSs processing performance and hun-
dreds of kbytes program and data memories. For long-lived battery operation, their
energy consumption is not adequate. However, these high power platforms can be
used as a part of a WSN for data processing and data routing. Examples of the high
performance platforms are Piconode [139], AMPS [112], and Stargate [35].
Low power platforms are aiming to maximize the lifetime and minimizing the physi-
cal size of nodes. These are obtained by minimizing hardware complexity and energy
consumption. These platforms are capable for performing low data rate communica-
tion and data processing required for networking and simple applications. Next, the
most essential sensor node platforms are discussed.
The most well-known work among low power sensor node platforms has been con-
ducted in the University of California, Berkeley. They have built a number of plat-
forms called motes by a SmartDust project. The SmartDust [207] project was aiming
to fabricate a cubic-millimeter sized WSN node containing sensing, computing and
communication systems. An important goal of the project was to explore the lim-
itations of microfabrication technology. Before that, Mote platforms were built to
approximate the capabilities of an envisioned SmartDust node with COTS compo-
nents.
In 2001, the rst mote called Mica [73] was released. Mica is a general purpose
platform for WSN research having Atmel ATmega103L MCU and RFM TR1000 ra-
dio that operates at 915 MHz frequency band and has up to 115.2 kbps data rate.
The MCU contains 128 kbytes program memory and 4 kbytes data memory, and
has 4 MIPS processing speed. In addition, the platform contains a 4-Mbit external
non-volatile memory and Atmel AT90LS2343 co-processor for handling wireless re-
programming of the main processor. The most critical shortcoming of the platform
is a switched-mode voltage regulator, which uses 200 - 300 A quiescent current
reducing signicantly achieved node lifetime [130].
An improved version of Mica called Mica2 [37] was released in 2002. Sleep mode
current consumption was reduced to about 17 A by discarding the switched-mode
regulator and utilizing Atmel ATmega128L MCU. The radio was changed to Chipcon
CC1000 enabling tunable frequency channel from 300 MHz to 900 MHz. A smaller
version of Mica2 called Mica2Dot [38] was also released in the same year. These
two platforms became very popular in WSN research for many years.
MicaZ [34] replaces the CC1000 radio with an IEEE 802.15.4 compatible Chipcon
CC2420 radio. This modication increased radio data rate from 76.8 kbps to 250
kbps. In addition, a wide-band DSSS modulation scheme provided better tolerance
against noise and interferences.
Telos [130] is a new type of mote released in 2004. Telos combines the CC2420
radio with a very low power TI MSP430 MCU. A special feature is an Universal
Serial Bus (USB) connector, which is used for programming the platform. Sleep
mode current consumption is only 5.1 A. An improved version of Telos is called
Tmote Sky [114].
Also other research projects have been developing sensor node platforms intensively.
Medusa MK-2 [156] is a versatile platform released in 2002 by University of Califor-
nia, Los Angeles. The platform combines ATmega128L MCU with TR1000 radio.
Hence, it is quite similar to Mica and Mica2 motes. A special feature of Medusa
MK-2 platform is a higher performance 16/32-bit Atmel AT91FR4081 ARM7TDMI
co-processor, which is responsible for the processing of sensor data and localization
algorithms. The platform is equipped with light, temperature, and acceleration sen-
sors. The sleep mode current consumption is 27 A, which is adequate for long-lived
WSN applications.
ETH Zurich has developed a sensor node platform called BTnode in a Smart-Its
project [174]. A BTnode combines Bluetooth radio with the ATmega128L MCU.
A BTnode rev3 [18], released in 2004, is a dual-radio platform, which can employ
simultaneously a Zeevo ZV4002 Bluetooth radio and the CC1000 radio. Hence, the
BTnode rev3 platform can form a backbone network with Bluetooth technology, and
exchange data with low power Mica2 and Mica2Dot platforms by the CC1000 ra-
dio [72]. A disadvantage is that typical sleep mode current consumption is 3 mA [23],
which limits the achievable node lifetime very signicantly.
A ScatterWeb Embedded Sensor Board (ESB) [157] is a simple and low power plat-
form developed by Freie Universitt Berlin, Germany in 2003. The platform consists
of the MSP430 MCU, RFM TR1001 radio and sensors for measuring light, acoustic
noise, vibration, and movement by a Passive Infra-Red (PIR) sensor. In addition, a
microphone, a speaker, and an Infra-Red (IR) transceiver are included. Long-lived
WSN applications are possible, since the sleep mode current consumption is only
8 A. Communication with external network is enabled by various gateway nodes
having interfaces, for example, to Ethernet, GSM/GPRS, USB and RS-485. A very
similar hardware architecture is employed also in nodes [140] developed by an Euro-
pean EYES research project.
A TinyNode [47] developed by Shocksh SA, Switzerland, is a very small and low
power platform developed for research and industrial applications. The platform con-
tains only the core components, while additional functionality and sensors are pro-
vided by extension boards. In addition, the platform contains a 512 kbytes external
non-volatile memory for storing several rmware images and for logging data. In-
cluded main components are MSP430 MCU, Semtech XE1205 radio and a temper-
ature sensor. The radio can operate in 433 MHz, 868 MHz and 915 MHz frequency
bands having up to 152 kbps data rate. Long lifetime is possible, since the sleep mode
current consumption is only 5.1 A .
A ProSpeckz [8] is a very small and simple platform, which is equipped with a
CY8C29666 Programmable System-on-Chip (PSoC) from Cypress Microsystems.
PSoC combines a simple 8-bit MCU core having 16 kbytes of program memory and
256 bytes of data memory with versatile software recongurable analogue circuits to
external interfaces and components. Employed radio is the TI CC2420. Although,
the PSoC platform provides versatile processing capabilities for analog sensor values,
high 330 A current consumption in sleep mode reduces signicantly the achievable
lifetime.
Besides the COTS platforms presented above, a lot of research work has been con-
ducted for developing SoCplatforms targeting to even smaller size and higher energy-
efciency. For example, a WiseNET SoC sensor node [54] developed in Swiss Cen-
ter for Electronics and Microtechnology integrates a low-power radio with CoolRISC
MCU core, low-leakage memories, two ADCs and power management blocks. The
reception mode current consumption is only 2 mA, which is nearly one order of mag-
nitude less than in typical low power radios. Yet, a data rate is only 25 kbps. The
transmission mode current consumption at 10 dBm output power is 24 mA. The sleep
mode current consumption of the radio block is 3.5 A.
The characteristics of the presented sensor node platforms are summarized in Table
10. At best, low power platforms can perform various sensing tasks and they enable
the extending of network lifetime to even years. This necessitates an energy-efcient
MAC protocol, which maximizes the time node spends in the sleep mode. This will
be discussed in details in the next Chapters.
In the future, data processing and sensing tasks within the network will be increased
and they become more complex. In the component side, this necessitates the devel-
opment of processors having high performance, energy-efciency, and large memory
resources. Also, the development of diverse low power sensor elements is important
for enabling the application development.
This Thesis will present a series of sensor node platforms, which further improve
the achieved network lifetime by focusing on the minimization of radio energy con-
sumption. Also, various sensor integrations, interfaces to external networks, and
application experiments will be presented.
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4. MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL FOR WSNS
A MAC layer operates on top of the physical layer and manages radio transmissions
and receptions on a shared wireless medium. Hence, it has a very high effect on
the performance and energy consumption of a network. This chapter discusses MAC
design requirements and existing MAC protocols for low-energy WSNs.
4.1 Low-Energy MAC Design
As WSNs are designed to operate in large geographic areas, the energy consumption
of data transmissions is reduced by forwarding data in the network by several low
energy hops (multi-hop routing). According to a distance-dependent path loss model
[161], the mean path loss (PL) increases exponentially with distance (d)
PL(d)
d
d
0
n
, (1)
where n is the path loss exponent, d
0
is the reference distance, and d is the ac-
tual distance between the transmitter and the receiver. The value of the path loss
exponent is typically between 2 and 3.5 depending on the operation environment
[68, 137, 138, 161]. Thus, the reduction of a hop length to a half reduces the required
transmission power to between 1/4 and 1/12. Yet, this model considers only the radi-
ated transmission power and ignores the static power consumption of the transmitter
and receiver circuitry, which dominate the power consumption at short hop distances.
Thus, the advantage of multi-hop routing is limited [44, 226].
To be able to reach adequate energy-efciency, a MAC protocol should be able to
minimize all unnecessary activity of a radio. Most importantly, a MAC protocol
should minimize [17, 88, 134, 207, 223]:
Idle listening: Idle listening occurs when a node is actively receiving a chan-
nel, but there is no meaningful activity on the channel resulting wasted energy.
36 4. Medium Access Control for WSNs
Collisions: When two nodes transmit simultaneously at the same frequency
channel their transmissions collide in the overlapping area of their transmis-
sion ranges. In this area the received data is most probably corrupted causing
useless receive cost at the destination node and useless transmit cost at the
source node.
Overhearing: An unicast transmission on a shared wireless broadcast medium
may cause other nodes than the intended destination to receive a data packet,
which is most probably useless to them and consumes unnecessarily energy.
Protocol overhead: The headers and trailers of data packets, and the control
packet exchange may cause signicant reception and transmission cost for all
nodes consuming unnecessarily energy.
Start-up transients: The transient from sleep to active mode, and switching
between active modes dissipate a lot of energy causing wasted energy.
As a principle, the radio should be activated only when transmitting or receiving
a packet that is vital for the node operation. Moreover, a source and a destination
node should be activated and tuned on a correct RF channel simultaneously, while
other nodes remain in the sleep mode. This is very difcult in large networks, where
operation conditions are uncertain and computing resources are constrained. Next,
the operation principles of the most essential MAC protocols are discussed.
4.2 Existing MAC Protocols
MAC protocols can be categorized into contention and contention-free protocols. In
contention protocols, nodes compete for a shared channel, while trying to avoid frame
collisions.
ALOHA [147] is the simplest contention protocol, where nodes transmit data with-
out coordination. Slotted ALOHA reduces collisions by dividing time into slots and
transmitting data on the slot boundaries only. CSMA [91] further reduces collisions
and improves achievable throughput by checking channel activity prior to transmis-
sions and avoiding transmission during busy channel situations. Carrier Sense Mul-
tiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) [33] is a modication of CSMA,
which reduces the congestion on a channel by deferring a transmission for a random
interval, if the channel is sensed to be busy (backoff). Still, collisions may occur
due to a hidden node problem [198]: nodes separated by two hops may not detect
4.2. Existing MAC Protocols 37
each other, and their transmissions may collide on the receivers of their intermedi-
ate nodes. Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (MACA) [89] reduces hid-
den node collisions by performing a Request-To-Send (RTS) - Clear-To-Send (CTS)
handshaking prior to a data transmission. This handshaking is also dened as an
option in CSMA/CA. While contention-based protocols work well under low traf-
c loads, their performance and reliability degrades drastically under higher loads
because of collisions and retransmissions.
In contention-free protocols, nodes get unique time slots or frequency channels for
transmissions. Ideally, collisions are eliminated. Time Division Multiple Access
(TDMA) [228] divides time into numerous slots, where only one node is allowed
to transmit on each slot. Other alternatives are Frequency Division Multiple Access
(FDMA) [2] and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) [85], which provide contention-
free operation by separate frequency channels and spreading codes, respectively.
Contention-free protocols achieve high performance and reliability regardless of the
trafc load. Yet, the bandwidth should be reserved in advance, which increases con-
trol trafc overhead [30, 84, 100, 186, 228].
Due to the power consumption of current low-power radios especially in the reception
mode, the energy-efciency of the conventional MAC approaches is not adequate for
the low energy WSN as such. Further energy saving is achieved by duty cycling: time
is divided into a short active period and a long sleep period, which are repeated con-
secutively. These low duty-cycle protocols can also be divided into two categories:
unsynchronized and synchronized protocols, according to the synchronization of data
exchanges.
4.2.1 Unsynchronized Low Duty-Cycle MAC Protocols
Unsynchronized low duty-cycle MAC protocols are based on a Low Power Listening
(LPL) mechanism, where nodes poll channel asynchronously to test for possible traf-
c, as presented in Fig. 9. Transmissions are preceded with a preamble (T
preample
)
that is longer than the channel-polling interval (T
interval
). Hence, the preamble part
acts like a wake up signal. If a busy channel is detected, nodes begin to listen to the
channel until a data packet is received or a time-out occurs.
B-MAC [129] is a simple LPL protocol, which utilizes CSMA for collision avoid-
ance. The energy-efciency of B-MAC is signicantly limited by the transmission
and reception energy costs due to the long preamble. In addition, energy-efciency
Source
Destination
Rx
Tx
Rx
Tx
T
preample
c
Preample
Channel sampling Data frame Carrier sensing c
time
time
Wait for data
T
interval
T
interval
Fig. 9. Operation of unsynchronized low duty-cycle protocols.
is reduced by overhearing of frames intended to other nodes and idle listening caused
by the frequent channel sampling.
Z-MAC [143] operates above B-MAC, but utilizes TDMA for managing congestion.
As a principle, each node owns a slot during which a smaller contention window is
used compared to other nodes. Thus, the slot owner always has the best possibility to
access the channel. Under low contention, Z-MAC behaves like CSMA, and under
high contention more like TDMA. The utilization of slots improves the fairness and
throughput of B-MAC. Yet, the improvement on energy-efciency is only limited.
There are numerous variations of B-MAC targeting at the reduction of the pream-
ple energy. Speck Medium Access Control Backoff (SpeckMAC-B) [217] replaces
the long preamble with numerous short wake up packets containing a destination
address and an exact time to the actual data transmission. Thus, nodes may return
to sleep mode after receiving one wake up packet. Speck Medium Access Control
Data (SpeckMAC-D) [217] replaces the long preamble with consecutive data packets
reducing the required channel reception time. In X-MAC [24], a sender transmits
multiple short preambles with the address of the intended receiver. Each preample is
followed by a short reception period. Upon receiving a preamble, the desired desti-
nation node sends an Acknowledgment (ACK) between the preambles. Other nodes
can enter early a sleep mode for reducing overhearing. After receiving the ACK, the
source node begins the transmission of a data frame. Disadvantages of these pro-
tocols are the transmission cost of a preample and idle listening caused by CSMA
mechanism, channel polling, overhearing and radio start-up transients.
There are two variations of B-MAC, which reduce preample energy by utilizing syn-
chronization. Thus, they can also be categorized into the group of synchronized pro-
tocols. They are presented here, since their operation principle is very similar with B-
MAC and other unsynchronized protocols. Wireless Sensor MAC (WiseMAC) [51]
utilizes ALOHA for transmissions. A network consists of an access point and numer-
ous sensor nodes in a star-topology. The access point learns the sampling schedules of
each sensor node and starts preamble transmission just prior to the channel sampling
moment of a desired destination node. Major disadvantages of the protocol are very
limited coverage and connectivity of the network due to the star-topology. Scheduled
Channel Polling Medium Access Control (SCP-MAC) [221] is a synchronized vari-
ation of B-MAC, which operates in a mesh network by making the channel polling
schedules of all nodes identical. Hence, only a short preamble is required to reach all
neighbors. Synchronization is performed by transmitting periodically synchroniza-
tion packets containing the schedule information, or piggybacking the information is
data packets. SCP-MAC is currently the most energy-efcient unsynchronized low
duty-cycle protocol. Still, the idle listening during a backoff mechanism and chan-
nel polling, collisions, frequent radio start-up transients, and overhearing reduces its
energy-efciency.
The preample can be eliminated by utilizing a wake-up radio [63]. The wake-up radio
mechanism is based on the assumption that the listen mode of the wake-up radio is ul-
tra low power and it can be active constantly. At the same time, the normal data radio
is in the sleep mode as long as there is no packet transmission or reception required.
Power Aware Multi-Access protocol with Signaling (PAMAS) [173] protocol enable
collision avoidance mechanism by utilizing RTS-CTS handshaking in the wake-up
radio channel. Sparse Topology and Energy Management (STEM) [159] protocol re-
duces the energy consumption of a wake-up radio by the LPL scheme. The wake-up
radio protocols are successful in avoiding overhearing and idle listening in the data
radio. Their major problems are the energy consumption and cost of the wake-up ra-
dio. In addition, the difference in the transmission ranges between data and wake-up
radio may pose signicant problems.
Unsynchronized protocols are relatively simple and robust, and require a small amount
of memory compared to synchronized protocols. A general drawback is rather high
overhearing, since each node must receive at least the beginning of each frame trans-
mitted within radio range. Thus, they suit best for relatively simple WSNs utilizing
very low data rates. Unsynchronized protocols tolerate dynamics in networks, but
their energy-efciency is limited by the channel sampling mechanism [223].
4.2.2 Synchronized Low Duty-Cycle MAC Protocols
Synchronized low duty-cycle MAC protocols utilize scheduling to ensure that listen-
ers and transmitters have a regular, short active period (T
active
) in which to exchange
Source
Destination
Rx
Tx
Rx
Tx
T
active
c c
wakeup_period
T
sleep
Active period Beacon Data frame Carrier sensing c
time
time
T
Fig. 10. Operation of synchronized low duty-cycle protocols.
one or more frames with neighbors. The active period is followed by a sleep pe-
riod (T
sleep
) for enabling energy saving. The active and sleep periods are repeated
at T
wakeup_period
intervals, as illustrated in Fig. 10. The active period is denoted as
a superframe, when a node typically rst broadcasts a control frame called beacon
for signaling its schedule and status information, and then listen to the channel for
possible incoming data until the end of the active period. Due to the synchronized
operation, nodes know the exact moments of active periods in advance eliminating
the need of long preambles. As a global synchronization is very difcult in large net-
works [99], synchronization is maintained locally by receiving periodically beacons
from one or more neighboring nodes.
For establishing the synchronized operation, neighboring nodes are typically discov-
ered by a network scan. The network scan means a long-term reception of frequency
channels for receiving beacons from neighbors, since their schedules and frequency
channels are unknown. Clearly, this is energy-hungry. However, the synchronized
operation after the network scan is very energy-efcient [221, 223].
S-MAC [220] is one of the rst synchronized low duty-cycle MAC protocols. The
protocol utilizes a xed active period length and an adjustable, network specic wake
up period. Neighboring nodes may coordinate their active periods to occur simulta-
neously to form virtual clusters. At the beginning of an active period nodes wake
up and exchange Synchronization (SYNC) frames for synchronizing their operation.
Then, nodes having data to be send transmit RTS messages using CSMA/CA mecha-
nism. According to received RTS messages, a destination node select a desired source
node and sends a CTS message. Then, the source and destination nodes continue by
exchanging data and ACK frames at most until the end of the active period. The
energy-efciency of S-MAC is reduced by long SYNC and RTS phases, and xed
active period length causing idle listening. In addition, the xed duty cycle causes
poor adaptation to changing trafc conditions.
Timeout-MAC (T-MAC) [201] protocol is a variation of the S-MAC, which utilizes a
short listening window after the CTS phase and each frame exchange. If no activity
occurs during the listening window, node returns to sleep mode. Thus, the length of
the active period is adjusted according to trafc. Still, the energy-efciency is limited
by the idle listening in SYNC and RTS phases.
DMAC [61] is a variation of S-MAC, which staggers the active/sleep schedules of the
nodes in a tree topology. This allows continuous low latency packet forwarding ow
from nodes to a sink. DMAC has mechanisms for notifying nodes of data delivery
progress and duty-cycle adjustments.
Several variations of TDMA are also proposed for low-energy WSN. Low-Energy
Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH) [71] protocol uses TDMA with clustered
network topology. LEACH utilizes a single base station, with which all cluster heads
employ direct communications. Inter-cluster interferences are managed by CDMA.
The problems of direct communication are limited network coverage and low energy-
efciency caused by high transmission power levels. However, cluster members op-
erate quite energy-efciently. For increasing network lifetime, LEACH proposes to
compress data in cluster heads and to rotate the role of a cluster head among cluster
members.
Self-Organizing Slot Allocation (SRSA) [218] protocol is a variation of LEACH,
which manages inter-cluster interferences by a distributed time division algorithm.
Time slot allocations for communication are adjusted according to observed colli-
sions within a cluster. Reliance only on the local information ensures high scalability.
Still, the problems with direct communication are not solved.
Power Aware Clustered TDMA (PACT) [125] protocol is a variation of LEACH,
which performs multi-hop data routing between clusters by inter-cluster gateway
nodes. Disadvantages of PACT are high control trafc overhead and idle listening
in larger networks. Relatively complex data slot scheduling algorithm performs well
in static networks, but lacks support for dynamic network.
Self-Organizing Medium Access Control for Sensor Networks (SMACS) [175] pro-
tocol assigns a locally unique contention-free slot for each link. Neighbor discovery
is performed at semi-regular intervals by broadcasting invitation messages on a com-
mon signaling channel. Then, the channel is received for possible responses and other
invitation messages. According to invitation messages, each pair of nodes mutually
agrees a periodic time and frequency slot for data exchanges. A major disadvantage
is the energy consumption of a neighbor discovery requiring a long-term radio re-
ception. This severely limits energy-efciency and adaptivity in dynamic networks,
where link lifetimes are short.
Trafc-Adaptive Medium Access (TRAMA) [135] is a scalable TDMA protocol de-
signed for multi-hop networks. Time is divided into slots. A distributed algorithm
selects only one sender for each slot per a two-hop neighborhood allowing collision-
free operation. Asender can command a set of neighbors to receive a given data frame
providing efcient unicast, multicast and broadcast transmissions. Nodes that are not
selected as senders or receivers at a particular time slot go to a sleep mode. Neighbor
information is updated during periodic random access periods. TRAMA can provide
collision-free medium access in a static network. Energy-efciency is reduced by
signaling trafc overhead and the random access periods requiring a long-term radio
reception. Hence, the energy-efciency and performance decrease signicantly in
dynamic networks.
IEEE 802.15.4 [82] standard denes a MAC layer that can operate on beacon-enabled
and non-beacon modes. In the non-beacon mode, a protocol is a simple CSMA/CA.
Energy-efcient synchronized low duty-cycle operation is provided by the beacon-
enabled mode, where all communications are performed in a superframe structure.
The superframe is divided into three parts: the beacon, Contention Access Period
(CAP) and Contention-Free Period (CFP). CAP is a mandatory part of a superframe
during which channel is accessed using a slotted CSMA/CA scheme. CFP is an
optional feature of IEEE 802.15.4 MAC, in which a channel access is performed in
dedicated time slots. CFP can be utilized only for a direct communication with a
PAN coordinator. Thus, its applicability and benets are very limited in multi-hop
networks.
IEEE 802.15.4 supports a BatteryLifeExtension option, which effectively reduces
the coordinator energy consumption by minimizing the lengths of contention win-
dow and CAP. Due to the shortened CAP, this option signicantly reduces available
throughput. In addition, a collision probability is high due to shorter backoff time.
Thus, this option is suitable only for small and very low data rate networks [P6].
The cluster-tree type IEEE 802.15.4 network can provide comparably good energy-
efciency in static and sparse networks. A major disadvantage is that coordinators
must be active entire CAP causing signicant idle listening. In addition, the hidden
node problem reduces performance in dense networks, since any handshaking prior
to transmissions are not used.
In current synchronized lowduty-cycle protocols, the major advantage is that a sender
knows a receivers wake up time in advance and thus can transmit efciently. In
dynamic networks, synchronized links are short-lived and new neighbors need to
be searched frequently, which increases energy consumption rapidly. In contention
protocols, a major disadvantage is the energy cost of receiving an entire active period
[129]. Contention-free protocols have better energy-efciency is stationary networks,
but their performance reduces rapidly as network dynamics increases.
The features and major contributions of the presented MAC protocols are summa-
rized in Table 11. The main problem of existing MAC protocols is the energy con-
sumption of idle listening, which is mostly caused by channel polling, preample
reception, contention mechanism, and neighbor discovery. Idle listening is further
increased in WSN applications, where link quality varies and nodes are mobile. In
addition, overhearing and frequent start-up transients limit the energy-efciency of
unsynchronized protocols. Hence, the energy-inefciency of existing MAC protocols
limits signicantly network lifetime and disables many potential application areas.
This Thesis presents a novel MAC protocol, which achieves higher energy-efciency
than the existing protocols. In addition, networking protocols for maintaining energy-
efcient operation in dynamic networks are presented.
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5. TUTWSN MAC DESIGN
The results of this Thesis are summarized from now on. This chapter presents the
MAC layer design for TUTWSN. The next chapter presents performance models
for WSN MAC protocols. Then, TUTWSN sensor node platform designs and ex-
perimental deployments are presented. The details of the results are published in
[P1]-[P10]. The performance of the designs is veried by performance analysis and
experimental measurements. First, TUTWSN networking technology and the design
requirements for the MAC layer are presented.
5.1 TUTWSN Networking Technology
TUTWSN networking technology has been developed for low data-rate monitoring
applications, where a large number of nodes self-congure themselves, perform sens-
ing and data processing tasks, and communicate with one or more sinks with very low
energy consumption. Target applications elds are environmental monitoring, build-
ing monitoring, condition monitoring, object and human tracking, and access control.
Target usage classes for message timeliness are 4 and 5 meaning non-critical agging
and data logging tasks [83].
The applications have strict requirements for network lifetime, scalability, and adap-
tivity for network dynamics. An important requirement has been that the designed
protocols are feasible in practice in harsh operation environment using low-power
hardware components. For these requirements, current networking technologies do
not provide adequate energy-efciency and performance. Thus, a completely new
networking technology has been developed.
In this Thesis, the main focus is on an energy-efcient MAC layer, which consists of
channel access and networking mechanisms. The main targets for the channel access
mechanism have been maximized energy-efciency and reliability. The networking
mechanisms perform network self-conguration and neighbor discovery operations.
The main objectives for them have been high energy-efciency and adaptivity for
46 5. TUTWSN MAC Design
API
API
Multi-hop routing
Multi-hop routing
MAC
MAC
Sensor node platform
Sensor node platform
TUTWSN stack TUTWSN MAC architecture
Frame processing
Frame processing
Queue control
Queue control
Frame assembly
Frame assembly
Error control
Error control
Channel access
Channel access
Network
management
Network
management
Neighbor discovery
Neighbor discovery
Self-configuration
Self-configuration
Bandwidth
management
Bandwidth
management
Applications
Applications
Fig. 11. TUTWSN protocol stack and MAC layer architecture.
tolerating unreliable radio links and node mobility. An important objective for the
entire MAC layer has been compatibility with a simple and low-power hardware.
This Thesis discusses also low-power and cost-effective sensor node platforms, which
have been developed for various sensing applications. Thus, the requirement for long
battery lifetime is solved by both MAC layer and sensor node platform designs.
The TUTWSN protocol stack is presented in Fig. 11. The focus of this Thesis is pre-
sented with boxes having a dark gray background. The MAC layer operates between
the radio on a sensor node platform, and a multi-hop routing layer [184]. Above
the routing layer are a transport layer and API [87]. API implements an abstraction
layer between applications and network protocols. Application layer contain various
sensing [181], data processing, and diagnostics [182] applications.
The architecture of the designed MAC layer is presented on the right side of the Fig.
11. Functions associated to frame processing are grouped to queue control, frame as-
sembly, error control, and channel access. In operation, frames received from routing
layer are queued, and then forwarded to a frame assembly according to frame priori-
ties. Frame assembly builds headers, manages addressing, and performs piggyback-
ing of control signaling in MAC frames. The error control performs error detection,
acknowledgements, and retransmissions. The channel access controls frame trans-
missions and receptions on RF channels using contention based and contention-free
mechanisms.
Network management contains mechanisms for bandwidth management, neighbor
discovery, and network self-conguration. Bandwidth management controls slot allo-
cations for the contention-free channel access mechanism. Neighbor discovery con-
tains reactive and proactive mechanisms called Network Channel Beaconing (NCB)
and Energy-efcient Neighbor Discovery Protocol (ENDP), which have been devel-
oped for maximizing network performance and energy-efciency in dynamic radio
environments. The self-conguration manages the formation of network topology,
5.2. TUTWSN Channel Access Mechanism 47
TUTWSN MAC
Design
TUTWSN MAC
Design
Channel
access
mechanism
Channel
access
mechanism
Networking
mechanisms
Networking
mechanisms
Neighbor
discovery
Neighbor
discovery
Self-
configuration
Self-
configuration
Contention-free
mechanism
Contention-free
mechanism
Contention
mechanism
Contention
mechanism
Network
topology
formation
Network
topology
formation
Superframe
interlacing
Superframe
interlacing
Path-loss
estimation
Path-loss
estimation
Network
channel
beaconing
Network
channel
beaconing
Energy-efficient
neighbor
discovery protocol
Energy-efficient
neighbor
discovery protocol
Fig. 12. Designed MAC layer mechanisms.
the interlacing of superframes for minimizing interferences, and the estimation of ra-
dio wave path-loss to neighboring nodes. In this Thesis, the self-conguration and
neighbor discovery mechanisms are called networking mechanisms. The designed
MAC layer mechanisms are summarized in Fig. 12.
5.2 TUTWSN Channel Access Mechanism
TUTWSN channel access mechanism pursues to minimize the duty cycle of commu-
nication. Until now, related proposals for channel access mechanism have reduced
energy consumption by focusing on the minimization of long-term idle listening,
overhearing, and the active period length, as discussed in the Section 4. Only a small
research effort has been paid on the minimization of the energy overhead of a channel
access as a whole.
For nding out the most essential causes of energy overhead, a simple energy analysis
of a CSMA channel access is presented. CSMA can be considered a typical channel
access mechanism in WSNs and it is used for example in IEEE 802.15.4, S-MAC, T-
MAC, SCP-MAC, and X-MAC. The results of the analysis will clarify the guidelines
for the designed TUTWSN channel access mechanism. To be able to focus purely on
the data exchange between two nodes, an analyzed network contains only a source
and a destination node. The actions of these nodes are presented in Fig. 13. At the
beginning of a channel access period, a destination node activates its receiver lasting
Carrier sensing
t
BOT
Source
Destination
RX
TX
RX
TX
Radio start-up transient
C
Data frame
D
A
t
AW
C
D
A Ack frame
t
ST
Fig. 13. Analyzed frame exchange mechanism.
t
ST
and begins receiving the channel for possible incoming frames. Prior to a data
frame transmission, the source node waits a random backoff time (t
BOT
), activates its
receiver, and performs a carrier sensing (t
CCA
). For improving energy-efciency, a
blind backoff is assumed, where a source spends t
BOT
in sleep mode. If the channel
is idle, the source turns the receiver off, activates its transmitter, and transmits a data
frame (t
DATA
). The energy of inactivating the radio is negligible and it can be ignored.
After receiving the data frame, the destination node turns off the receiver, checks the
correctness of the data (t
AW
), activates a transmitter and transmits ACK. Since the
wait time (t
AW
) prior to the reception of ACK is not pre-determined, and depends on
the frame content and data processing performance, the source node needs to be in
reception mode entire t
AW
.
The consumed energy is divided into an effective energy comprising data and ACK
exchange energies, and overhead energy consisting of radio start-up, backoff, and
ACK wait energies. Next, models for these energies are determined.
The presented frame exchange procedure consists of two transmitter start-up and
three receiver start-up transients (t
ST
) during which power consumption equals to a
transmitting power (P
TX
) and a receiving power (P
RX
), respectively. Hence, the total
start-up energy (E
ST
) of a frame exchange is
E
ST
=t
ST
(2P
TX
+3P
RX
). (2)
Although the source node may sleep during the backoff delay, the destination node
needs to be in the reception mode. An average idle listening time consists of a half
of a contention window length (t
CW
) and a carrier sensing time (t
CCA
). Hence, the
backoff energy consumption (E
BO
) is
E
BO
=
t
CW
2
+t
CCA
P
RX
. (3)
The ACK wait energy consumption (E
AW
) caused by an average ACK wait delay
(t
AW
) is
E
AW
=t
AW
P
RX
. (4)
The data exchange energy (E
DATA
) consists purely of the transmission and reception
energies of a data frame (L
DATA
). As radio data rate is R, E
DATA
is
E
DATA
=
L
DATA
R
(P
TX
+P
RX
). (5)
Similarly, the ACK exchange energy is
E
ACK
=
L
ACK
R
(P
TX
+P
RX
). (6)
Next, the energy consumptions are determined for a low power sensor node plat-
form utilizing Microchip PIC18LF4620 MCU. Since the energy characteristics of
low power radios are diverse, the energy consumptions are determined for two differ-
ent types of generally used commercial off-the-shelf radios: a High data Rate (HR)
Nordic Semiconductor nRF2401A [120] radio having 1 Mbps data rate, and a Low
data Rate (LR) Chipcon CC1000 [192] radio having 76.8 kbps data rate. The utilized
parameter values are presented in Table 12 in subsection 6.3., p. 76. The analysis
focuses on short (<128 Bytes) frame lengths, since they results the highest energy-
efciency at high (> 1x10
4
) Bit Error Rate (BER) conditions [7, 154]. High BER is
typical for WSNs due to difcult operation environment and narrow band radios [7].
The resulted energies as the function of data frame size are presented in Fig. 14. Gen-
erally, the HR radio has nearly one order of magnitude lower effective energy con-
sumption compared to the LR radio. The energy overhead is nearly equal for both
radio types. The energy overhead is caused mostly by the backoff mechanism and
carrier sensing causing idle listening. The mechanism also necessitates frequent op-
eration mode changes causing signicant start-up transient energy consumption. The
LR (CC1000)
1
10
100
1000
0 16 32 48 64 80 96 112 128
Data frame size (Bytes)
E
n
e
r
g
y

(
J
)
Effective
Back-off
Start-up
ACK wait
HR (nRF2401A)
1
10
100
1000
0 16 32 48 64 80 96 112 128
Data frame size (Bytes)
E
n
e
r
g
y

(
J
)
Effective
Back-off
Start-up
ACK wait
Fig. 14. The effective and overhead energies of HR (nRF2401A) and LR (CC1000) platforms.
results clearly indicate that energy overhead is dominating the energy consumption
of the HR radio. For the LR radio, the energy overhead is also signicant. In practice,
busy channel situations and collisions make the energy overhead even higher [21].
The designed TUTWSN channel access mechanism pursues to maximize energy-
efciency by minimizing idle listening, unnecessary start-up transients, overhearing,
control frame overhead, and collisions. These are minimized by two ways:
Predetermined frame exchange moments: Nodes maintain accurate local
synchronization and exchange frames exactly at predetermined moments.
Reservation based channel access: Nodes avoid collisions and the energy
overhead of contention mechanism by reserving their transmission moments in
advance.
The designed channel access mechanism is illustrated in Fig. 15. For enabling frame
exchanges, some or all nodes maintain a superframe structure (superframe manager).
Superframes are repeated at regular intervals called an access cycle. A node can
receive data and control frames fromits neighbors in its own superframe, whilst frame
transmissions to a neighbor is performed in the superframe of the desired neighbor.
The rest of time, nodes can sleep and conserve energy. For eliminating collisions,
superframes have locally unique schedules such that they do not overlap with each
other.
At the beginning of each superframe, a superframe manager transmits a beacon. The
beacon contains crucial information for the channel access, networking, and routing.
For the channel access, two elds are the most essential: time to the next superframe,
TX
RX
TX
RX
Neighbor A
time
time
Beacon Contention Contention-free
slots slots
t
A
Uplink boundary Downlink boundary
Super-
frame
Idle time Idle time
Super-
frame
Access cycle
TX
RX
Neighbor B
time
t
S
time
TX
RX
TX
RX
Neighbor A
time
time
Beacon Contention Contention-free
slots slots
t
A
Uplink boundary Downlink boundary
Super-
frame
Idle time Idle time
Super-
frame
Access cycle
TX
RX
Neighbor B
time
t
S
time
Fig. 15. TUTWSN access cycle and superframe.
which is used for maintaining synchronization, and reserved slot allocation table,
which is used for granting transmission rights for associated neighbors.
The beacon is followed by time slots for data exchanges. Each superframe contains
two types of time slots: contention slots and contention-free slots. Data frames utilize
reservation based contention-free slots, while contention slots are used for control
frames allowing network association and slot reservations. While the amount of the
slots can vary depending on the application, the current TUTWSN implementation
utilizes four contention slots and up to eight contention-free slots in each superframe.
Time slots are further divided into uplink and downlink subslots. Uplink subslots are
used for transmitting data or control frames to the superframe manager. Downlink
subslots are used by the superframe manager for transmitting ACKs. Each subslot
contains an active part (t
A
), which is used for transmitting a single frame, and a sleep
part (t
S
), which is used for data processing and preparing a next frame during which
radio is in idle or sleep mode. Since the beacon at the beginning of each superframe
performs synchronization, the clock drift is negligible at the slot boundaries. In the
current implementation, t
A
is slightly longer than the transmission time of a single
frame, and length of each subslot is 10 ms.
To minimize the energy overhead, uplink frames are transmitted without any collision
avoidance mechanism. Occasional collisions in contention slots are managed by re-
transmissions. All downlink subslots are contention-free, since only the superframe
manager can transmit in these slots. Collisions between superframes are avoided
by the superframe interlacing mechanism presented in the next section. As carrier
sensing functionality is not needed, energy overhead is low and the designed channel
access mechanism can be implemented with a simple and low cost hardware.
Since the superframe manager cannot predict which contention slots will be used,
unnecessary reception of slots is unavoidable causing idle listening. This is common
for all contention based mechanisms. The reduction of the number of contention
slots reduces the idle listening of superframe managers, but increases the probability
of collisions. This may reduce the energy-efciency and performance of an entire
network [153, 222].
In the designed contention mechanism, the energy consumption is minimized by three
ways. First, the reception is always terminated as soon as an unused contention slot is
detected, or at last when t
A
has expired. Second, the utilization of contention slots is
minimized by piggybacking bandwidth adjustment signaling in data frames. Third,
the number of contention slots is dynamically adjusted according to their loading
[P1].
The designed contention-free mechanism is inherently energy-efcient, since the uti-
lized reserved slots in each superframe are determined in advance using bandwidth
adjustment signaling and the slot allocation table. The idle listening is nearly elimi-
nated, since only utilized subslots are received. A minor idle listening is caused by
the inaccuracy of time synchronization and occasional link failures causing reception
failures in the contention-free slots.
5.3 TUTWSN Networking Mechanisms
In this Thesis, networking mechanisms are included in the MAC layer. Networking
mechanisms perform the creation and management of a scalable, reliable, and adap-
tive network topology for data routing. The networking mechanisms are divided into
self-conguration and neighbor discovery mechanisms. The mechanisms are pre-
sented independently of each other to improve clarity and to facilitate the adaptation
of individual mechanisms with other types of MAC layers.
5.3.1 Self-Conguration
The designed self-conguration mechanism performs three main functions: network
topology formation, superframe interlacing, and path-loss estimation. The network
topology formation determines the operation mode of each node and maintained ra-
dio links between nodes. The superframe interlacing ensures collision-free operation
5.3. TUTWSN Networking Mechanisms 53
for the channel access mechanism in large and dense networks by eliminating over-
lapping superframes. The path-loss estimation measures the attenuation of signal
strength between nodes allowing the utilization of simple, low power and low cost
radios without Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) functionality. The path-
loss estimation enables a dynamic transmission power control and the maintenance
of robust routing paths. Self-conguration operations are decentralized, and each
node makes its conguration according to observed information from neighborhood.
Network Topology Formation
To reduce the energy consumption of frame transmissions in large networks, multi-
hop data routing between nodes is utilized [62, 96]. Frames are routed from a source
to a destination along a chain of low-energy hops. Each node along the chain receives
data from a neighbor (child) one hop closer to the source, maintains synchronization
with a next-hop node (parent) by periodically receiving its beacons, and transmits
data according to time slot assignments.
The selection of network topology between at and clustered affects signicantly on
network energy consumption and bandwidth utilization [P1], [99, 203]. In the at
topology, all nodes participate in data routing and consume nearly equally power and
network bandwidth. In the clustered topology, a network is formed as interconnected
star networks. The master of each star is a cluster head, while other nodes are leaf
nodes. Cluster heads utilize a majority of energy and bandwidth by managing super-
frames and exchanging data with other clusters. Leaf nodes synchronize themselves
with a superframe schedule and transmit data on demand without the need of their
own superframes, which reduces the bandwidth utilization of a network.
The designed network topology is based on the clustered topology. Each cluster con-
sists of a cluster head (headnode), leaf nodes (subnodes), and associated headnodes
(child headnodes) from neighboring clusters. The operation of a child headnode in a
next hop cluster is similar with a subnode, which receives beacons and transmits data
according to time slot assignments.
The utilization of a clustered topology is rationalized by a simple analysis, which con-
siders the energy consumptions of clustered and at topologies using the TUTWSN
channel access mechanism. The analysis assumes that the energy consumptions of
frame transmissions (E
TX
) and receptions (E
RX
) are equal for all frame types, which
is realistic for the TUTWSN channel access utilizing a low power radio. Moreover,
the density of cluster heads in the clustered topology is assumed to be adequate for
maintaining optimal hop lengths. Therefore, the number of required data and ACK
frame exchanges for at and clustered topologies is equal, as the entire network is
considered.
A router node is dened as any node in the at topology, and a cluster head in the
clustered topology. The energy overhead of the router node (E
OR
) consists of the
transmissions and receptions of beacons, and the reception of S
A
contention slots.
For one access cycle, the energy overhead is
E
OR
= E
TX
+(S
A
+1)E
RX
. (7)
The energy overhead of a leaf node (E
OL
) using TUTWSN channel access is caused
by the reception of beacons. Hence, for one access cycle, E
OL
equals to E
RX
.
In the at topology, all nodes have equal energy overhead, which equals to E
OR
. In the
clustered topology, where each cluster consists of n
S
leaf nodes, the average energy
overhead per a node (E
OC
) is
E
OC
=
E
TX
+(S
A
+1+n
S
)E
RX
n
S
+1
. (8)
If n
S
= 0, then E
OC
= E
OR
. This is clear, since all nodes are cluster heads and the
network is similar with the at topology. As n
S
increases, E
OC
decreases, and when
n
S
, then E
OC
E
RX
, which equals to E
OL
. Hence, the clustered topology has
always lower energy overhead than the at topology, assuming that the network has at
least one leaf node. The energy-efciency of clustering is even more obvious, when
cluster heads aggregate received data reducing the amount of forwarded data [203].
Network connectivity between clusters can be formed as a cluster-mesh or a cluster-
tree topology. In the cluster-mesh topology, each cluster head maintains connectivity
with all neighboring cluster heads resulting robust network, but higher energy con-
sumption. In the cluster-tree topology, each cluster head maintains connectivity with
one cluster head only, which is one hop closer to a sink locating at the root of the
tree. This improves energy-efciency, but reduces the tolerance against link failures
due to low connectivity.
This Thesis presents a multi-cluster-tree topology [P1], which combines the strengths
of cluster-tree and cluster-mesh topologies. The multi-cluster-tree topology consists
of multiple super-positioned cluster-tree networks. An example multi-cluster-tree
topology is illustrated in Fig. 16, where arrows indicate the directions of uplink
Subnode
Headnode
Sink
Cluster-tree 1
Cluster-tree 2
Fig. 16. Multi-cluster-tree network topology (k = 2).
routing paths. Each subnode and headnode maintains synchronization with k neigh-
bors by receiving their beacons. This allows the adjustment of connectivity for both
subnodes and headnodes allowing a trade-off between network robustness and en-
ergy consumption. Compared to the cluster-tree topology, which supports only one
route to a single sink, the multi-cluster-tree allows the utilization of multiple sinks,
multiple routes, and load balancing between headnodes. The value of k is uniform for
entire network and it is selected before a deployment according to expected network
dynamics. According to measurements with TUTWSN nodes, an optimal value for k
is between 2 and 4 [P1].
Superframe interlacing
For guaranteeing contention-free channel access in a multi-hop network, the overlap-
ping of superframes in two-hop neighborhood (interference range) is eliminated by
interlacing. Typically, interlacing is implemented by time division, for example in
IEEE 802.15.4 [82], DMAC [61], SRSA [218], and TRAMA. The time division lim-
its network density especially when the superframe length is relatively long compared
to the access cycle length. In the designed superframe interlacing mechanism, scala-
bility is improved by time and frequency division. For reasoning this, a short analysis
of the maximum scalability is presented. The maximum number () of nodes in an
interference area can be determined by the access cycle length (T
AC
), the superframe
length, the average number of subnodes in each cluster, and the number of utilized
non-interfering frequency channels (n
CH
) as
=
T
AC
n
CH
(1+n
S
)
2(1+S
A
+S
R
)(t
A
+t
S
) +t
guard
, (9)
where S
A
and S
R
are the maximum number of contention and contention-free slots,
t
guard
is a short guard time between consecutive superframes. is maximized by
maximizing T
AC
, n
CH
, and n
S
, and by minimizing t
A
and t
S
. It can be clearly seen in
the equation that by utilizing a high data-rate radio operating at a wide frequency band
provides the highest scalability. In the current 2.4 GHz TUTWSN implementation,
T
AC
= 4 s, n
CH
= 20, n
S
= 8, S
A
= 4, S
R
= 8, tA+tS = 10 ms, and t
guard
= 100 ms.
Thus, equals to 2000 nodes per an interference area. If only one channel is used
(n
CH
= 1), would be reduced to 10 nodes per an interference area. In TUTWSN
sensor node platforms, the interference range in indoor conditions is around 100 m
equaling to the area of 31400 m
2
.
In the designed superframe interlacing mechanism, each headnode selects semi-randomly
a time slot and a frequency channel (superslot) for its superframe among the free
slots detected by a network scan. The simple randomization minimizes the energy
overhead of signaling trafc. The superslot is selected at a node start-up and if inter-
ferences are detected by increased link error rate [P1].
Path-Loss Estimation Scheme
The measurement of path-loss to neighboring nodes is crucial for efcient network
self-conguration; nodes should form and maintain robust routing paths with suf-
cient radio link quality and energy-efcient hop lengths [171]. Moreover, measured
path-loss enables dynamic adjustment of transmission power levels for minimizing
the energy consumption of the transmitter. Conventionally, the path-loss is mea-
sured by a RSSI functionality of a radio. A disadvantage of the RSSI functionality
is increased radio hardware complexity. In general, the cheapest and lowest energy
radios lack RSSI functionality, for example Nordic Semiconductor nRF2401A [120],
and nRF24L01 [121].
The designed path-loss estimation scheme [P2] measures path-loss to a neighboring
node according to the successfully and unsuccessfully received beacons, which the
neighbor transmits at different transmission power levels. The operation principle of
path loss metering is illustrated in Fig. 17, where Node 3 determines path losses to
Node 1 and Node 2 by receiving their beacons. The transmission ranges of beacons
transmitted at four power levels are illustrated by circles. As Node 1 is transmitting,
Node 3 is within the range of the second lowest transmission power level resulting in
low path loss. Only the highest transmission power reaches node 2 resulting in high
path loss.
Range with the
highest power
beacon
Range with the
lowest power
beacon
Node 1 Node 2
Node 3
Node 1
(TX)
Node 2
(TX)
Node 3
(RX)
Lowest power beacon
Highest power beacon
Failed receptions
Successful reception
Successful
reception
Radio
power
down
Fig. 17. The operational principle of a path loss metering.
In TUTWSN MAC implementation, all beacons are replaced by the train of beacons.
Power consumption is further optimized by transmitting only two beacons in each
train. Each train consists of the highest power beacon and an altering power beacon.
The transmission power of the altering power beacon is alternately selected among
all possible transmission power levels except the highest power, and it is signaled in
the beacon header. Thus, the path loss estimation is gradually improved as multiple
trains are received [P2].
Experimental performance measurements [P2] in indoor and outdoor environments
indicate sufcient accuracy for managing robust network operation. Measurements
presented in [90] show that the path loss metering scheme has adequate accuracy for
node localization [169]. A performance analysis [P2] in a large scale ZigBee network
indicate that the path loss metering consume less than 0.5% of the entire node power
consumption. By utilizing a simple (Nordic semiconductor nRF24L01) radio with
the path loss metering scheme results in over 51% power saving compared to a low
power RSSI equipped radio (TI CC2400) [P2].
5.3.2 Neighbor Discovery
Low transmission power levels, harsh and dynamically changing operation environ-
ment, and mobile applications cause unreliability for wireless links. After a link
failure, a new synchronized link is established by a neighbor discovery operation.
Typically, the neighbor discovery is performed by a network scan by listening a fre-
quency channel until adequate number of beacons is received. To be able to detect
all neighbors operating at different frequency channels, the network scan duration in
each utilized channel must be at least one beacon transmission interval. This method
is utilized, for example, in IEEE 802.15.4 [82].
An energy analysis [P5] with a typical low power radio indicates that each second of
a network scan consumes the energy equaling to the transmission of nearly 2800 bea-
con frames. Clearly, the scanning increases signicantly the energy consumption of
a node, especially as network dynamics is high and the number of utilized frequency
channels is high.
In this Thesis, two solutions for energy-efcient neighbor discovery are presented:
a Network Channel Beaconing (NCB) scheme [P1], [P3], [P5], which can be com-
plemented with an Energy-efcient Neighbor Discovery Protocol (ENDP) [P4] for
further improving adaptivity. The objective of the both solutions is to maximize
achieved energy efciency and to minimize data routing breaks in dynamic networks.
Network channel beaconing
The designed NCB scheme dedicates one globally known channel for short network
beacons, which are broadcast by all headnodes more frequently than ordinary bea-
cons (cluster beacons). A network beacons contain the frequency channel and exact
time to the next superframe. In addition, required information for selecting an ap-
propriate headnode as a parent is included. The network beacons are received during
a neighbor discovery only. As illustrated in Fig. 18, the neighbor discovery is per-
formed by receiving the network channel for one network beacon interval [P3]. For
clarity, the additional beacons of the path-loss estimation scheme are not presented
in the gure. In normal operation, beacons are received only in the cluster channel.
A potential shortcoming of the network channel beaconing mechanism is unequal
transmission range in different frequency channels due to antenna characteristics and
different interference levels. To avoid this, the neighbor discovery is completed with
the reception of cluster beacons from the most suitable parents in their cluster chan-
time
time
Network
channel
Headnode D
(channel 4)
Superframes
time
Headnode C
(channel 3)
time
Headnode B
(channel 2)
time
Headnode A
(channel 1)
Network channel reception
for neighbor discovery
Network beacons of:
Headnode A: Headnode B: Headnode C: Headnode D:
Network beacon interval
Access cycle
Fig. 18. Neighbor discovery with network beacons.
nels. This validates the link quality measurements and the set of new parents with
which synchronized links can be established.
The performance of the network channel beaconing scheme has been analyzed in a
general case with a network using the synchronized low duty-cycle channel access
scheme [P5], and in a ZigBee network [P3].
To show the achieved energy saving, Fig. 19 presents the results of an energy analy-
sis [P3] comparing network maintenance power consumptions with and without the
NCB scheme. The network maintenance power is the sum of network scanning and
beacon transmission powers. Cluster beacon interval and average network scan in-
terval are set to 3.96 s and 2000 s, respectively. The analysis is performed using the
hardware parameters of TI CC2420 [194] radio, and PIC18LF8722 [106] MCU. As
the standard specied passive scans are used, the network maintenance power con-
sumptions for networks using one and four channels are 132 W and 468 W. When
NCB is utilized, the minimum of network maintenance power is 42 W regardless of
the number of channels. This power is achieved at 2.6 Hz network beacon rate. Thus,
NCB achieves up to 96% energy saving compared to the standard ZigBee [P3].
An analysis in [P3] indicates that an energy optimal network beacon transmission rate
f
b
is a function network scanning interval (I
NS
), beacon frame transmission energy
(E
TX
), radio power consumption in the reception mode (P
RX
), and the average number
of leaf nodes in each cluster (n
S
), as
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
0.1 1 10 100
Network Beacon Rate (Hz)
M
a
i
n
t
e
n
a
n
c
e

P
o
w
e
r

(
W
)
Network maintenance (ZigBee, 4 ch)
Network maintenance (ZigBee, 1 ch)
Network maintenance (NCB)
Beacon exchange (NCB)
Network scanning (NCB)
Fig. 19. Beacon exchange, network scanning and network maintenance power consumptions
and comparison with standard ZigBee neighbor discovery.
f
b
=
P
RX
(n
S
+1)
E
TX
I
NS
. (10)
The function of f
b
is similar for ZigBee, TUTWSN and other networks utilizing the
synchronized low duty-cycle MAC scheme with regular beacon transmissions and
network scans.
Energy-efcient neighbor discovery protocol
The designed ENDP reduces the need of network scans by a proactive distribution
of synchronization information about potential parents in a two-hop neighborhood.
Nodes transmit the synchronization information about their direct parents in beacons.
A Synchronization Data Unit (SDU) referring to a node consists of two parts: the
channel on which the node is operating, and the time base difference (offset) between
the node and the sender of SDU. As NCB is used, SDUs are transmitted in network
beacons [P4].
The operation of ENDP is illustrated in Fig. 20. In the gure, the number of main-
tained synchronized links (k) is two. Node M receives SDUs from its parents I and L.
Node I composes SDUs from its parents A and B. Similarly, Node L composes SDUs
from nodes H and G yielding that node M gathers synchronization information about
nodes A, B, H, and G [P4].
M
L
F
E
K
G H
J
D C
I
A
B
Ch: 12
Ch: 35
Ch: 56
Ch: 55
Ch: 16
Offset:+220 ms
Offset:+150 ms
Offset:+100 ms
Offset:+390 ms Offset:+450 ms
Offset:+120 ms
Ch: 21
Node I, ch55, neighbors
[ch35,+150ms; ch12,+100ms]
Node L, ch21, neighbors[ch56,+450ms; ch16,+390ms]
Ch:07
Node M, ch07, neighbors
[ch55,+220ms; ch21,+120ms]
Fig. 20. Connectivity and distributed neighbor information. Arrows indicate synchronization
between nodes.
If a link failure occurs or the link quality to a neighbor degrades signicantly, a
node rst tries to receive beacons and form a new synchronized link according to
the received SDUs. The energy consumption of these beacon receptions is negligible
compared to the energy consumption of a network scan. A network scan is performed
only if a suitable parent is not discovered by SDUs. The performance of ENDP can
be adjusted according to the parameter k of the multi-cluster-tree topology.
The energy-efciency of ENDP is analyzed in [P4]. The analysis utilizes the hard-
ware parameters of a TUTWSN temperature sensing prototype consisting of Mi-
crochip PIC18LF8722 [106] MCU and Nordic Semiconductor nRF2401A [120] ra-
dio having 1 Mbps data rate. In the analysis, radio range is set to 10 m. Fig. 21
compares the network maintenance power consumptions as the function of network
beacon rate at 0.1 m/s and 10 m/s node velocities. Curves are plotted using NCB with
and without ENDP. When ENDP is used, k is varied from 1 to 4. When ENDP is not
used, k is xed to one resulting in the lowest power consumption. For comparison,
the network maintenance power consumption using conventional network scans in
one channel without NCB is plotted [P4].
The network maintenance power consumptions at 0.1 m/s and 10 m/s node veloc-
ities using conventional network scans are 1.23 mW and 60.17 mW, respectively.
By adding the NCB scheme, network maintenance power consumption decreases at
optimal network beacon rate to 95 W and 742 W. With ENDP, the minimum net-
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
M
a
i
n
t
e
n
a
n
c
e

P
o
w
e
r

(
m
W
)
Conventional scan Without ENDP ENDP, k=1
ENDP, k=2 ENDP, k=3 ENDP, k=4
v = 10 m/s
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
M
a
i
n
t
e
n
a
n
c
e

P
o
w
e
r

(
m
W
)
v = 0.1 m/s
Fig. 21. Network maintenance powers with and without ENDP and network beacons.
work maintenance power further reduces to 87 W (k = 1) and 397 W (k = 2). The
results show that ENDP reduces the network maintenance power consumption, as
node mobility is higher than 1 m/s and the achieved energy saving increases with
node mobility [P4]. Experimental measurements of ENDP are presented in Chapter
7 validating the results in practice.
6. PERFORMANCE MODELS
This chapter presents performance models for analyzing the power consumptions
of the most essential low power channel access mechanisms and comparing them
against the designed TUTWSN MAC. The focus is on data and ACK frame ex-
changes and on the maintenance of link synchronization by a beacon or SYNC frame
exchange.
Performance models are determined for the following MAC protocols: T-MAC [201]
and B-MAC [129], which are well known synchronized and unsynchronized low
duty-cycle protocols, X-MAC [24] and SCP-MAC [221], which are two interesting
proposals for unsynchronized protocols, and IEEE 802.15.4 [82], which is the most
potential standardized technology for WSNs. For comparison, an ideal MAC proto-
col is dened and modeled.
The following performance models are based on the analysis of S. Yoon presented
in [223]. For this Thesis, the set of models has been extended by IEEE 802.15.4 and
TUTWSN MAC protocols. In addition, the effects of start-up transitions, contention
windows and crystal tolerance have been modeled more accurately. In addition, the
models and their presentation has been simplied and claried.
The performance models are derived using the following assumptions:
- Each sensor node measures one sensor sample and forwards it to a next-hop
node during one data generation interval;
- Each data frame is followed by an ACK for fair comparison;
- There are no transmission errors nor collisions;
- There is no contention, and carrier sense attempts produce an idle result;
- The power consumption of idle listening equals to the reception mode power;
- The active time of MCU equals to the active time of radio.
64 6. Performance Models
Therefore, the performance models can focus on the power consumption of the chan-
nel access mechanisms, while the effects of data processing, contention, and control
frame exchanges are eliminated. For contention based protocols, obtained results
are slightly better than in practice with contention. As TUTWSN MAC utilizes
contention-free mechanism for data and ACK exchanges, the obtained results for
TUTWSN are realistic.
6.1 Utilized Parameters
For determining the channel access models, all essential parameters describing the
characteristics of a sensor node platform, application, and network topology are iden-
tied. The sensor node platform is dened by the following parameters:
Crystal tolerance of a wake up timer
P
Y
The power consumed for Y, where Y RX (receive), S (sleep), TX (transmit)
R The data rate of a radio
t
ST
Radio start-up transient duration (crystal running)
Application and network topology are dened by the following parameters:
L
X
The length of frame X, where X ACK, B (beacon or SYNC), CTS, DATA,
P (preample), RTS
n The number of direct neighbors for a given node
n
DL
The number of descendent nodes of a given node in the routing tree, i.e. the
number of data frames the node needs to forward during one data generation
interval
T
DATA
Data generation interval in each node
In addition, there are protocol implementation specic parameters. Generally utilized
parameters of that kind are:
t
CCA
The time for a clear channel assessment or carrier sensing
t
CW
Contention window length in CSMA
t
sleep
Sleep period length
T
AC
Access cycle length or channel polling interval
T
SYNC
SYNC or beacon frame transmission interval
6.2. Models 65
6.2 Models
Energy consumptions are analyzed for a router node (A), and a leaf node (B) pre-
sented in Fig. 22. Both nodes have eight neighbors (n), which may cause overhearing
and interferences for the channel access. Data generation interval (T
DATA
) is equal for
each node, and it varies from 1 s to 1000 s. Arrows in the gure indicate data routing
directions. The trafc load is accumulated in routers, since they transmit their own
data and the multi-hop routed data from n
DL
nodes. For example, the router node
A routes data from three nodes (n
DL
= {B, D, E}), while the router node C routes
data from four nodes (n
DL
= {A, B, D, E}). This increases the power consumption
of these routers, but also the overhearing and interferences among other nodes in their
transmission range.
Average power consumptions (P) for each protocol are calculated by normalized
transmission (t
TX
) and reception (t
RX
) activities and their power consumptions as
P =t
TX
P
TX
+t
RX
P
RX
+(1t
TX
t
RX
)P
S
. (11)
The normalized activity is determined by dividing the duration of an activity by the
interval of the activity resulting in a percentage value of the activity. Data exchanges
are normalized by T
DATA
during which all nodes in the network generate exactly
one data frame. Similarly, the transmission and reception activity for maintaining
synchronization is normalized by T
SYNC
.
A B
C
D
E
Fig. 22. Network topology for channel access comparison.
6.2.1 Ideal-MAC
First, an ideal MAC (Ideal-MAC) protocol [223] is dened. All nodes can exchange
data and ACK frames without the need of any synchronization or contention mecha-
nism. Nodes can sleep all the time between frame exchanges. Hence, the Ideal-MAC
does not cause any idle listening or control frame overhead.
The required activity for exchanging one data frame is presented in Fig. 23. Although
MAC is ideal and practically impossible to implement, a sensor node platform is
realistic. Thus, each data transmission and reception is preceded by a radio start-up
transient (t
ST
). Thus, t
TX
and t
RX
for the leaf node are
t
TX
=
t
ST
+
L
DATA
R
1
T
DATA
, (12)
t
RX
=
t
ST
+
L
ACK
R
1
T
DATA
. (13)
The router node receives data frames from n
DL
leaf nodes, transmit them ACKs,
forwards the received and own data frames to a parent and receives ACKs. Thus, t
TX
and t
RX
for the router are
t
TX
=
t
ST
+
L
DATA
R
n
DL
+1
T
DATA
+
t
ST
+
L
ACK
R
n
DL
T
DATA
. (14)
t
RX
=
t
ST
+
L
DATA
R
n
DL
T
DATA
+
t
ST
+
L
ACK
R
n
DL
+1
T
DATA
. (15)
6.2.2 B-MAC
B-MAC [129] uses the LPL scheme, where nodes sleep (t
sleep
), wake up (t
ST
) and
poll channel (t
CCA
) periodically at T
AC
intervals. The frame exchanges of B-MAC are
DATA
ACK
s
time
time
TX
RX
TX
RX
Source
Destination
s
s
s
t
ST
Fig. 23. The activity of radio in Ideal-MAC.
6.2. Models 67
presented in Fig. 24.
The normalized channel polling time (t
POLL
) is
t
POLL
=
t
ST
+t
CCA
T
AC
. (16)
The leaf node transmits data frames at T
DATA
intervals. Each transmission is preceded
by a carrier sensing (t
CCA
) and a preamble transmission lasting T
AC
. Thus, t
TX
for the
leaf node is
t
TX
=
t
ST
+T
AC
+
L
DATA
R
1
T
DATA
. (17)
In B-MAC, all data in a radio range is received. As the leaf node has n neighbors,
and the router in a range forwards n
DL
data frames from leaf nodes, totally n + n
DL
data frames are received during T
DATA
. Since channel is polled randomly, average
preamble reception time is a half of T
AC
. Thus, t
RX
for the leaf node is
t
RX
=t
POLL
+
T
AC
2
t
CCA
+
L
DATA
R
n+n
DL
T
DATA
+
t
ST
+
L
ACK
R
1
T
DATA
. (18)
The operation of the router node is similar to the leaf node, except the amount of
exchanged data. The router node forwards data frames from n
DL
nodes and transmits
ACKs. The normalized transmission and reception times for the B-MAC router are
t
TX
=
t
ST
+T
AC
+
L
DATA
R
n
DL
+1
T
DATA
+
t
ST
+
L
ACK
R
n
DL
T
DATA
. (19)
DATA
time
time
TX
RX
TX
RX
Source
Destination
ACK
t
CCA
t
CCA
t
sleep
Preample
T
AC
T
AC
T
AC
/2
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
t
ST
Fig. 24. The activity of radio in B-MAC.
t
RX
=t
POLL
+
T
AC
2
t
CCA
+
L
DATA
R
n+n
DL
+1
T
DATA
+
t
ST
+
L
ACK
R
n
DL
+1
T
DATA
. (20)
The power consumption reaches its unique minimum at an optimal polling interval
(T
AC
) obtained by setting (t
TX
P
TX
+t
RX
P
RX
)/T
AC
= 0. Performance results are
calculated using the optimal polling interval of the router, which is
T
AC
=
T
DATA
(t
ST
+t
CCA
)
(n
DL
+1)P
TX
/P
RX
+(n+n
DL
+1)/2
. (21)
6.2.3 SCP-MAC
SCP-MAC [221] replaces the long preample with a short wake-up tone by waking
up the senders and the receiver at the same time. The best-case situation is consid-
ered, where all synchronization signaling is piggybacked with data frames. Thus, the
synchronization does not cause control frame exchanges. The frame exchanges of
SCP-MAC are presented in Fig. 25.
SCP-MAC utilizes similar channel polling than B-MAC, and t
POLL
equals to (16).
The duration of the wake-up tone (t
TONE
) is determined according to the clock drift
(), the rate of frame receptions containing synchronization information, and the min-
imum tone duration (t
CCA
) to detect a transmission. Thus, t
TONE
is
t
TONE
=
4T
DATA
n+n
DL
+t
CCA
. (22)
DATA
time
time
TX
RX
TX
RX
Source
Destination
t
CW
/4
t
CCA
t
sleep
T
AC
Tone
ACK
SB
t
CCA t
CCA
s
s
s
s
s s
s
s s
t
ST
t
TONE
t
CW
/4
CW1 CW2
Fig. 25. The activity of radio in SCP-MAC.
6.2. Models 69
A data frame transmission consists of the wake-up tone, and the frame transmis-
sion. SCP-MAC utilizes two contention windows (CW1 and CW2) being t
CW
/2 long.
Thus, an average backoff time in each contention window is t
CW
/4 during which the
source node is asleep. After a start-up transient, the destination node receives on
average halves of the wake-up tone and the second contention window. Data frames
are piggybacked with synchronization data (SB). Thus, t
TX
and t
RX
of the SCP-MAC
leaf node are
t
TX
=
2t
ST
+t
TONE
+
L
SB
+L
DATA
R
1
T
DATA
. (23)
t
RX
=t
POLL
+
3t
ST
+2t
CCA
+
L
ACK
R
1
T
DATA
+
3t
ST
+
t
TONE
2
+
t
CW
4
+t
CCA
+
L
SB
+L
DATA
R
n+n
DL
T
DATA
. (24)
The SCP-MAC router transmits n
DL
+1 data frames to a next hop node, and ACKs
to the leaf nodes. Thus, t
TX
and t
RX
of the SCP-MAC router node are
t
TX
=
2t
ST
+t
TONE
+
L
SB
+L
DATA
R
n
DL
+1
T
DATA
+
t
ST
+
L
ACK
R
n
DL
T
DATA
. (25)
t
RX
=t
POLL
+
3t
ST
+2t
CCA
+
L
ACK
R
n
DL
+1
T
DATA
+
3t
ST
+
t
TONE
2
+
t
CW
4
+t
CCA
+
L
SB
+L
DATA
R
n+n
DL
+1
T
DATA
. (26)
For achieving the best energy-efciency, a node should only poll the channel when
there is a transmission from a neighbor. Performance results are calculated using the
optimal polling interval of the router, which is
T
AC
=
T
DATA
n
DL
+1
. (27)
6.2.4 X-MAC
In X-MAC [24], each data frame transmission is preceded by the strobed preamble,
as presented in Fig. 26. The minimum channel polling time to receive at least one
entire preamble (P) equals to the lengths of two preamples (t
p
) and one ACK (t
al
).
The normalized channel-polling time in X-MAC is
t
POLL
=
2t
p
+t
al
T
AC
, where (28)
t
p
=t
ST
+
L
P
R
, (29)
t
al
=t
ST
+
L
ACK
R
. (30)
Assuming uniformdistribution of wake-up moments, the average length of the strobed
preamble is a half of the wake up period (T
AC
), during which T
AC
/(2(t
p
+t
al
)) pream-
ples are transmitted. Overhearing is limited to the channel polling time. Hence, t
TX
and t
RX
the leaf node are
t
TX
=
T
AC
2(t
p
+t
al
)
t
p
+t
ST
+
L
DATA
R
1
T
DATA
, (31)
t
RX
=t
POLL
+
T
AC
2(t
p
+t
al
)
+1
t
al
T
DATA
. (32)
DATA
time
time
TX
RX
TX
RX
Source
Destination
t
sleep
T
AC
/ 2
P
t
p
2t
p
+ t
al
P
s
s
s
s
P
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
A
C
K
A
C
K
t
al
s
T
AC
t
ST
Fig. 26. The activity of radio in X-MAC.
6.2. Models 71
As the router node receives and forwards data frames from n
DL
nodes, the normalized
transmission and reception times of the X-MAC router node are
t
TX
=
T
AC
2(t
p
+t
al
)
t
p
+
L
DATA
R
n
DL
+1
T
DATA
+
2t
al
n
DL
T
DATA
, (33)
t
RX
=t
POLL
+
T
AC
2(t
p
+t
al
)
+1
t
al
(n
DL
+1)
T
DATA
+
t
ST
+
L
DATA
R
n
DL
T
DATA
. (34)
The power consumption reaches its unique minimum at an optimal polling interval
(T
AC
) obtained by setting P/T
AC
= 0. Performance results are calculated using the
optimal polling interval of the router, which is
T
AC
=
2T
DATA
(t
p
+t
al
)(2t
p
+t
al
)
(t
p
P
TX
/P
RX
+t
al
)(n
DL
+1)
. (35)
6.2.5 T-MAC
Next, the synchronized low duty-cycle protocols are modeled. For comparability, T
AC
is determined such that each active period in the router node contains n
F
data frames
T
AC
=
n
F
T
DATA
n
DL
+1
. (36)
In T-MAC [201], each node polls channel for RTS messages at T
AC
intervals, as
presented in Fig. 27. If no trafc exists, radio is turned off after a period of T
A
.
Hence, the normalized channel polling time without trafc is
t
POLL
=
t
ST
+T
A
T
AC
, where (37)
T
A
=t
ST
+t
CW
+t
RTS
. (38)
A data frame transmission consists of a random delay within a Contention Window
(CW) being followed by an RTS - CTS - DATA - ACK frame exchange. L
B
bytes long
SYNC frames are transmitted at T
SYNC
intervals using a random delay within CW.
For maximum energy-efciency, adaptive listening and virtual clusters are assumed.
According to received RTS frames, nodes are in sleep mode during the transmissions
intended to other nodes. Thus, t
TX
and t
RX
for the leaf node are
t
TX
=
2t
ST
+
L
RTS
+L
DATA
R
1
T
DATA
+
t
ST
+
L
B
R
1
T
SYNC
, (39)
t
RX
=t
POLL
+
2t
ST
+
t
CW
2
+
L
RTS
R
n+n
DL
T
DATA
+
2t
ST
+
L
CTS
+L
ACK
R
1
T
DATA
+
t
ST
+t
CW

L
B
R
1
T
SYNC
. (40)
The router node receives data frames from n
DL
nodes, transmits n
DL
+1 frames to a
next-hop node, and transmits and receives SYNC frames. Thus, t
TX
and t
RX
for the
T-MAC router node are
t
TX
=
2t
ST
+
L
RTS
+L
DATA
R
n
DL
+1
T
DATA
+
2t
ST
+
L
CTS
+L
ACK
R
n
DL
T
DATA
+
t
ST
+
L
B
R
1
T
SYNC
, (41)
DATA
A
C
K
time
time
TX
RX
TX
RX
Source
Destination
B
C
T
S
R
T
S
t
CW
/2
t
CW
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
B
time
s
T
A
s s
S
Y
N
C
S
Y
N
C
T
SYNC
T
A
T
AC
s
s
1. data exchange 2. n. data
exchanges
s
ACTIVE
PERIOD
T
AC
s
t
ST
Fig. 27. The activity of radio in T-MAC.
6.2. Models 73
DATA
A
C
K
time
time
TX
RX
TX
RX
Source
Destination
B
t
CW
/2
s
s
s
s
s
s
s s
t
CCA
DATA
A
C
K
t
CW
/2
s
s
s
s
s s
t
CCA

2T
AC
time
t
CAP
T
AC
B
1. data exchange 2. data exchange
CAP B CAP
s
3. n. data
exchanges
t
ST
Fig. 28. The activity of radio in IEEE 802.15.4.
t
RX
=t
POLL
+
3t
ST
+
t
CW
2
+
L
RTS
+L
DATA
R
n
DL
T
DATA
+
t
ST
+t
CW

L
B
R
1
T
SYNC
+
t
ST
+
t
CW
2
+
L
RTS
R
n+n
DL
+1
T
DATA
+
2t
ST
+
L
CTS
+L
ACK
R
n
DL
+1
T
DATA
. (42)
6.2.6 IEEE 802.15.4
For obtaining the best energy-efciency, IEEE 802.15.4 [82] is analyzed in the beacon-
enabled mode, with inactive time, and employing a cluster-tree network topology.
Nodes maintain synchronization by receiving beacon frames from a parent at the
beginning of active periods. Beacons are transmitted by cluster heads only. The
required activity of radio is presented in Fig. 28.
Beacons are transmitted at T
AC
intervals. As a crystal tolerance is , the normalized
beacon reception (polling) time is
t
POLL
=
t
ST
+2T
AC
+
L
B
R
1
T
AC
. (43)
A data frame transmission is preceded by a random backoff delay and two Clear
Channel Assessment (CCA) operations [82]. IEEE 802.15.4 utilizes blind backoffs,
where nodes spend the backoff delay in the sleep mode. A data frame is followed by
an ACK, which is transmitted within a maximum waiting time of 864 s. Assuming
the best case situation, where the hardware processes the received frame instantly,
ACK is transmitted without a delay. Thus, t
TX
and t
RX
for the IEEE 802.15.4 leaf
node are
t
TX
=
t
ST
+
L
DATA
R
1
T
DATA
, (44)
t
RX
=t
POLL
+
3t
ST
+2t
CCA
+
L
ACK
R
1
T
DATA
. (45)
The IEEE 802.15.4 router node (coordinator) transmit beacons, receives entire CAP
except ACK transmissions, and forward data to a next hop node. Thus, t
TX
and t
RX
for the IEEE 802.15.4 router node are
t
TX
=
t
ST
+
L
B
R
1
T
AC
+
t
ST
+
L
DATA
R
n
DL
+1
T
DATA
+
t
ST
+
L
ACK
R
n
DL
T
DATA
, (46)
t
RX
=t
POLL
+
t
CAP
T
AC
t
ST
+
L
ACK
R
n
DL
T
DATA
+
3t
ST
+2t
CCA
+
L
ACK
R
n
DL
+1
T
DATA
. (47)
For achieving the maximum energy-efciency, analysis results are determined using
the minimum CAP length, where the required frame exchanges can be performed.
The minimum CAP length is
t
CAP
=
4t
ST
+
t
CW
2
+2t
CCA
+
L
DATA
+L
ACK
R
n
F
. (48)
6.2.7 TUTWSN MAC
For comparison, the energy consumption of TUTWSN is modeled. Due to the sta-
tionary network, the following analysis considers the basic channel access mech-
anism without the networking mechanisms. Each node maintains synchronization
with one parent. Superframe contains S
A
contention slots and the required number of
contention-free slots. The activity of radio in TUTWSN is presented in Fig. 29.
6.3. Results 75
In TUTWSN, the normalized channel polling time t
POLL
is similar with IEEE 802.15.4.
The leaf node (subnode) receives the beacons and transmits data using a contention-
free slot. Thus, t
TX
is similar with IEEE 802.15.4 leaf node, and t
RX
for the leaf node
is
t
RX
=t
POLL
+
t
ST
+
L
ACK
R
1
T
DATA
. (49)
The TUTWSNrouter node (headnode) receives and transmits beacons, receives S
A
/T
AC
contention slots and n
DL
/T
DATA
contention-free slots, and transmits received and
own generated data to a parent in contention-free slots. Thus, t
TX
and t
RX
for the
TUTWSN router are
t
TX
=
t
ST
+
L
B
R
1
T
AC
+
t
ST
+
L
ACK
R
n
DL
T
DATA
+
t
ST
+
L
DATA
R
n
DL
+1
T
DATA
, (50)
t
RX
=t
POLL
+
t
ST
+
L
DATA
R
S
A
T
AC
+
n
DL
T
DATA
t
ST
+
L
ACK
R
n
DL
+1
T
DATA
. (51)
6.3 Results
By utilizing parameter values presented in Table 12, average power consumptions are
determined for HR and LR platforms.
DATA
A
C
K
time
time
TX
RX
TX
RX
Source
Destination
B
s
s
s
s
s
s
2T
AC
time
T
AC
Superframe
s s
DATA
A
C
K
s
s
s
s
S
A
contention
slots
1.
contention-
free slot
2.
contention-
free slot
Superframe
Sleep
3. n.
contention-
free slots
t
ST
Fig. 29. The activity of radio in TUTWSN MAC.
The results for HR platform are presented in Fig. 30. According to the results,
synchronized protocols outperform clearly unsynchronized proposals in the analyzed
network. For both node types, the order of power consumptions is the same. B-MAC
results in the highest power, while TUTWSN performs closest to the Ideal-MAC.
As data generation interval increases from 1 s to 1000 s, the power consumptions
of the Ideal-MAC leaf and router nodes are 68 W to 37 W, and 270 W to 37
W, respectively. The power consumption of TUTWSN leaf and router nodes are
23.4% to 6.54%, and 18.8% to 6.60% higher than the Ideal-MAC and the same data
generation intervals. IEEE 802.15.4 performs the second best and results in 80.4% to
6.64 % and 229% to 8.14% higher power consumption than the Ideal-MAC.
The utilization of LR platform increases power consumptions, as presented in Fig.
31. However, TUTWSN MAC maintains its energy-efciency resulting in the low-
est power consumption. The power consumptions of the Ideal-MAC leaf and router
nodes are 171 Wto 37 W, and 945 Wto 38 W, respectively. The power consump-
tion of TUTWSN leaf and router nodes are 27.1% to 2.85%, and 20.2% to 3.18%
higher than the Ideal-MAC and the same data generation intervals. IEEE 802.15.4
performs the second best and results in 42.1% to 2.92% and 66.3% to 4.33% higher
power consumption than the Ideal-MAC.
The results indicate that the designed channel access mechanism achieves higher
Table 12. Utilized parameter values.
Parameter Value (HR) Value (LR)
20 ppm 20 ppm
L
ACK
, L
CTS
, L
RTS
, L
P
8B 8B
L
B
, L
DATA
32B 32B
L
SB
(SCP-MAC) 2B 2B
n 8 8
n
F
8 8
n
DL
3 3
P
RX
60.2 mW 25.4 mW
P
S
37 W 37 W
P
TX
34.7 mW 29.9 mW
R 1 Mbps 76.8 kbps
S
A
(TUTWSN) 2 2
T
SYNC
(T-MAC) 90 s 90 s
t
CCA
128 s 256 s
t
CW
2 ms 4 ms
t
ST
195 s 250 s
6.3. Results 77
0.01
0.1
1
10
1 10 100 1000
Data Generation Interval (s)
L
e
a
f

N
o
d
e

P
o
w
e
r

(
m
W
)
B-MAC X-MAC SCP-MAC T-MAC
802.15.4 TUTWSN Ideal-MAC
0.01
0.1
1
10
1 10 100 1000
R
o
u
t
e
r

N
o
d
e

P
o
w
e
r

(
m
W
)
Fig. 30. Power consumption comparison using HR (nRF2401A) radio.
energy-efciency than the most essential existing low-power MAC protocols. De-
pending on the trafc loading, radio type, and data routing capability, the energy
overhead of TUTWSN nodes is only 2.85% to 27.1%. The high energy-efciency is
achieved in both leaf and router nodes. It should be noted that the TUTWSN channel
access can operate without the designed networking mechanisms (NCB and ENDP).
Then, the neighbor discovery operations are performed similarly with IEEE 802.15.4
passive scans.
0.01
0.1
1
10
1 10 100 1000
L
e
a
f

N
o
d
e

P
o
w
e
r

(
m
W
)
B-MAC X-MAC SCP-MAC T-MAC
802.15.4 TUTWSN Ideal-MAC
0.01
0.1
1
10
1 10 100 1000
R
o
u
t
e
r

N
o
d
e

P
o
w
e
r

(
m
W
)
Fig. 31. Power consumption comparison using LR (CC1000) radio.
7. TUTWSN SENSOR NODE PLATFORMS AND DEPLOYMENTS
This chapter summarizes the research results of TUTWSN sensor node platforms
and deployments. The sensor node platforms have been designed for three reasons.
First, for measuring and understanding the behavior of low power components in
real operation environment, which is critical for the design of a feasible MAC layer.
Second, for measuring the performance of the TUTWSN MAC layer design in large
scale networks, which is critical for validating and optimizing the design. Third,
for developing and demonstrating new WSN applications and long-lived WSN nodes
in practice. Important information obtained from the sensor node platforms have
been the constraints and non-ideal characteristics of low-power hardware components
and radio wave propagation, and their effect on protocol implementation, network
performance, and power consumption.
The TUTWSN sensor node platforms have been designed in parallel with the MAC
layer. The platforms have been tailored according to the memory, processing power
and timing accuracy requirements of the TUTWSN protocol stack and the MAC
layer. Existing platforms have not been used, since they have not been commercially
available, or their energy consumption has been too high.
7.1 TUTWSN Node Designs
This Thesis presents twelve TUTWSN sensor node platforms, which have been de-
signed in the years 2004 to 2006. Along the time, TUTWSN protocol stack has been
developed and its memory requirements have been increased. One of the most criti-
cal design decisions has been the selection of a radio and MCU. Since the radio is a
signicant (in most nodes the largest) source of power consumption [P7], TUTWSN
platforms have utilized simple and low energy radios. MCU has been selected ac-
cording to sleep mode power consumption, the energy-efciency in active mode, and
memory resources for software. In addition, an accurate wake up timer has been
required for ensuring link synchronization accuracy.
80 7. TUTWSN Sensor Node Platforms and Deployments
The platforms are presented chronologically and summarized at the end of this Sec-
tion. Performance results obtained by the platforms are presented in the next Section.
7.1.1 Node Designs in 2004
The rst embedded TUTWSN sensor node platforms were designed in 2004. At that
time, TUTWSN protocol stack contained only the basic MAC functionality and very
simple upper protocol layers.
According to an energy analysis [P7], Nordic Semiconductor nRF2401A [120] radio
and Xemics (Semtech) XE88LC02 [163] MCU were selected as the basis of the de-
signed platforms. The radio operates at 2.4 GHz frequency band and has 1 Mbps data
rate resulting in high energy-efciency and enabling the utilization of a very small
ceramic antenna. The MCU utilizes an energy-efcient CoolRISC core and 16-bit
ADC. Available 22kB program memory and 1 kB data memory were sufcient for
the protocol stack of that time.
TUTWSN Node
First, a platform called TUTWSN node [P8] was build. The platform was targeted
at indoor temperature sensing applications. It was equipped with a simple analog
temperature sensor and a linear voltage regulator. External EEPROM was used for
non-volatile data. The implemented TUTWSN node is presented in Fig. 32.
Antenna
EEPROM
Temperature
sensor
Programming
connector
Test pins
Radio
MCU Regulator
0 10 20 mm
Power switch
Fig. 32. TUTWSN node.
7.1. TUTWSN Node Designs 81
Although the platform was energy-efcient [P8], it had some problems in experimen-
tal networks. A small ceramic antenna limited the radio range to around 15 meters. In
addition, tolerances in a low-cost temperature sensor and its voltage reference caused
inaccuracy to measurements.
TUTWSN Position Sensor Node
For demonstrating the feasibility of TUTWSN in industrial applications, a platform
called TUTWSN position sensor node [P9] was implemented. The platform was
equipped with a linear position sensor, a small 150 mAh (3.6 V) rechargeable Nickel-
Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery, and it was packed in a robust aluminum casing. The
battery capacity was adequate, since the required battery lifetime was one month [P9].
The Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and the aluminum casing of the node is presented
in Fig. 33.
According to measurements, the TUTWSNposition sensor node obtained better radio
Antenna
EEPROM
Sensor
connector
Radio
MCU
Voltage
regulator
Battery
Programming
connector
Diagnostics
LEDs
Linear position
sensor
WSN node
prototype
Moving axis for
position measuring
Fig. 33. TUTWSN position sensor node.
range than the TUTWSN node. The usability of the platform was also improved by
the robust mechanical design and the on-board battery. In addition, the connector
for the linear position sensor could be used for charging the battery. Measurements
with the TUTWSN position sensor nodes indicated that TUTWSN technology has
adequate performance for measuring low-speed movements by the sensor element.
Observed problems of the platform were low battery capacity, and expensive antenna.
In addition, strong uctuation of a radio link quality caused frequent link failures and
network scans, which increased power consumption at long hop lengths.
TUTWSN Gateway
For implementing a sink and a gateway to PC, a platform called TUTWSN gateway
was designed [P9]. The platform was equipped with an RS-232 serial interface. For
improving usability, the platform obtained its supply energy directly from the RS-232
port using a rectier and large electrolytic lter capacitors. The TUTWSN gateway
is presented in Fig. 34.
TUTWSN SoC Node
A platform called TUTWSN SoC node was implemented [P8] for experimenting and
measuring the performance of commercial SoC components integrating radio and
MCU. The platform was targeted at a subnode operation.
The platform utilized Nordic Semiconductor nRF24E1 [119] chip, which contains a
nRF2401A radio, ADC and a 8051 MCU core having 4 kB program memory and
256 B data memory. External EEPROM was required for storing program mem-
ory. Because of a common radio interface, the platform was compatible with other
Antenna LEDs MCU RS-232 transceiver RS-232 connector Voltage regulator Radio
Filter capacitors Voltage rectifiers Programming connector
Fig. 34. TUTWSN gateway.
TUTWSN platforms. The platform was equipped with a simple temperature sensor
and a linear voltage regulator. The TUTWSN SoC node on a 5 cent coin is presented
in Fig. 35. The size of the platform was only 23 mm x 13 mm x 5 mm.
The utilization of the SoC component reduced node size and cost. Yet, an inaccurate
wake up timer caused serious problems for link synchronization. Link synchroniza-
tion was possible by either extending the frame reception periods, or keeping MCU
always active. According to energy measurements, the latter resulted better energy-
efciency. Still, the measured average power consumption was over two orders of
magnitude higher than the power consumption of other TUTWSN platforms.
As TUTWSN protocol stack was improved and extended, the memory resources of
the Xemics MCU exceeded. In 2005, new family of sensor node platforms was de-
signed and implemented. Microchip PIC18LF4620 [105] MCU was selected accord-
ing to an analysis of the energy-efciency, sleep mode power consumption, wake up
timers, and memory resources of available MCUs. It should be noted that the energy-
efciency of PIC is around four times worse than in Xemics, which slightly increases
the power consumption of these platforms.
Antenna nRF24E1
Crystal
EEPROM
Programming
connector
Temperature
sensor
Voltage converter Power switch
Fig. 35. TUTWSN SoC node on a 5-euro-cent coin.
TUTWSN Temperature Sensor Node
First, a platform called TUTWSN temperature sensor node was designed [P2]. The
platform was designed to tolerate arctic conditions, and all utilized components were
specied with an extended temperature range beginning from -40

C. The range of
the nRF2401A [120] radio was improved by a loop antenna, which was implemented
as a PCB trace and experimentally tuned for the best performance. The accuracy of
temperature measurements was improved by utilizing a Dallas DS620U [42] digital
thermometer. The platform was powered by a lithium battery having high perfor-
mance in low temperature conditions. Support for a solar panel as a power source
was improved by an under voltage protection circuit in the power subsystem. The
circuitry was required to eliminate the under voltage lockout condition of MCU and
radio, since the supply voltage depends on the illumination.
The implemented TUTWSN temperature sensing node is presented in Fig. 36. The
platform contained two attachable boards: a MCU board and an extension board,
which was equipped with a battery holder. The utilization of detachable extension
board allowed the change of a power source and easy implementation of application
specic sensors and network interfaces.
According to experiments, the platform had good mechanical design for outdoor eld
tests. Operation in temperatures as low as -37.5

C were experimentally veried.
The digital thermometer improved highly the accuracy of temperature measurements.
Measured transmission range of the loop antenna was up to 500 meters, which drasti-
cally reduced the required number of hops, and transmission power levels. Yet, high
directivity of the antenna reduced the accuracy of node localization.
Antenna
Transceiver
Battery
MCU and
temperature sensor
(bottom side)
Voltage regulator
Push button
and LED
Fig. 36. Implemented TUTWSN temperature sensor node.
TUTWSN Long-Range Node
For improving the applicability of TUTWSN in environmental monitoring applica-
tions, a TUTWSN long-range node was implemented. The platform was targeting
at over 1 km hop lengths enabling the coverage of large geographic areas by us-
ing a relatively small number of nodes. The platform utilized similar design with
the TUTWSN temperature sensor node, except the radio. Due to the increased re-
quirements for communication range, the platform utilized a Nordic Semiconductor
nRF905 [122] radio operating at the 433 MHz frequency band. The radio has 50
kbps data rate and 10 mW maximum transmission power. Antenna was selected
and ne-tuned according to experimental measurements. According to the results, a
half-wave loop was the best tradeoff between size and performance, and had nearly
omni-directional radiation pattern. The TUTWSN long-range node is presented in
Fig. 37.
Experiments with the platform indicated up to 3 km radio range in a deployed net-
work. Thus, very large and sparse networks were possible. Observed problems with
the platform were lower energy-efciency and scalability than with the 2.4 GHz ra-
dio. These were caused by the low data rate, and only few usable channels due to
signicant inter-channel interferences and the narrow 433 MHz frequency band.
Antenna
Transceiver
Battery
MCU and temperature
sensor (bottom side)
Voltage
regulator
Push button
and LED
Fig. 37. TUTWSN long-range node.
TUTWSN Wrist Node
For indoor localization applications, a platform called TUTWSN wrist node was de-
signed. Since the platform was intended for human localization and access con-
trol applications, the design targeted at signicantly smaller size than the previous
PIC-based platforms. Due to the size constrains, a small ceramic antenna was se-
lected. Since only subnode operation was required, MCU was changed to a smaller
PIC18LF2520 [104] model. The node obtained supply power from a CR2450 lithium
coin cell battery. Since the coin cell battery can supply only around 100 A current, a
NiMH battery was used as a temporary energy storage supplying high current peaks.
The implemented TUTWSN wrist node is presented in Fig. 38. The PCB is circular
shaped having a diameter of 30 mm. The PCB is enclosed in a plastic enclosure
presented in the gure. The top side of the board contains the antenna, radio, sensor,
push-button and LED. The bottom side contains MCU and a voltage regulator.
Observed problems with the platform were expensive power subsystem and short
transmission range.
Transceiver
NiMH Battery
Temperature sensor
Antenna
Microcontroller
Voltage regulators
Push button
LED
Connectors for
CR2450 battery
Fig. 38. Implemented TUTWSN wrist node.
TUTWSN Badge Node
For reducing the cost of the power subsystem and improving the battery capacity,
a variation the TUTWSN watch node called TUTWSN badge node was designed.
Larger physical size allowed the use of AAA-type batteries, accelerometer, and a
larger PCB antenna having longer range and a nearly omni-directional radiation pat-
tern improving the performance of node localization. The movement of the node
could be measured by both signal strength and acceleration measurements. The im-
plemented TUTWSN badge node with a plastic container is presented in Fig. 39.
Multi-Radio Platform
For minimizing routing latency in real-time control applications, a multi-radio plat-
form was developed [P10]. The platform was targeted at a mains-powered backbone
node operation, where absolute minimum latency was needed.
For compatibility with other TUTWSN nodes, the multi-radio platform was equipped
with nRF2401A [120] radios. Efcient routing of multiple frames simultaneously
was enabled by utilizing four parallel radios controlled by an Altera Cyclone EP1C20
[6] Field Programmable Gate-Array (FPGA) circuit. The FPGA has enough gates for
four NIOS processor software cores and MAC layer frame forwarding functionality
as a hardware accelerator implementation. The complete multi-radio platform is pre-
sented in Fig. 40. The platform size is 125 mm 112 mm 30 mm [P10].
The platform enabled the minimization of routing latency by receiving and transmit-
ting frames simultaneously using different radios. The platform determined the next
hop node as soon as the frame header was received after which the frame forwarding
Batteries Temperature sensor MCU Radio LEDs Push buttons
Fig. 39. TUTWSN badge node for human positioning.
Radio boards
I/O board
Mother board
Cyclone
device
Programming
connector
DC input
Battery terminals
(bottom side)
Power
switch
7-segment
display
Analog
and digital
I/O
LEDs and
push-buttons
Fig. 40. Multi-radio platform.
began instantly. Theoretical minimum routing delay was as low as 106 s per a hop
[P10].
In 2006, the TUTWSNprotocol stack was extended by several newprotocols and sen-
sor applications. The utilization of many new features was limited by the constrained
memory resources. In addition, new monitoring applications necessitated the integra-
tion of new types of sensors in platforms. Thus, new versions of the TUTWSN sensor
node platforms were designed. The design targets were cost-effectiveness, improved
interfaces for external networks, improved mechanical design, and versatile sensors.
TUTWSN Universal Node
First, a TUTWSN universal node was developed. The previous MCU was replaced
with a larger PIC18LF8722 [106] having 128 kB program memory and 4 kB data
memory. For allowing larger data buffers and the development of SensorOS oper-
ating system on nodes, data memory was extended by an external 128 kB SRAM.
Previously used nRF2401A radio was changed to nRF24L01 [121] having up to 2
Mbps data rate with lower active mode power consumption. Antenna was modied
for achieving more omni-directional radiation. The node was equipped with acceler-
ation, temperature and illumination sensors. User interface was implemented by push
button and two LEDs. In addition, Lantronix XPort [97] was optionally assembled
User interface
and illumination
sensor
Temperature
sensor and MCU
(bottom side)
Antenna Radio
SRAM
Voltage
converters
Place for
Ethernet module
Accelerometer
Battery holder Enclosure
Fig. 41. TUTWSN universal node and the plastic enclosure.
for providing Ethernet connectivity. Hence, the node could also operate as a stand-
alone sink having Ethernet gateway functionality. In normal operation, the node was
powered by two AA-batteries. The utilization of Ethernet necessitates the use of a
mains power adapter.
Power subsystem was improved by a two-step dynamic voltage scaling. A higher
voltage setting allowed the utilization of a higher clock frequency, while lower volt-
age setting minimized the sleep mode power consumption. Moreover, the sleep mode
power consumption was reduced by a Field-Effect Transistor (FET) circuitry, which
switches off the supply voltage of sensors, when they are not used. The appearance
and mechanical strength of the node was improved by a designed splash-proof plas-
tic enclosure. The PCB and the plastic enclosure of the TUTWSN universal node are
presented in Fig. 41.
TUTWSN Long-Range Universal Node
For improving the applicability of the TUTWSN universal node in environmental
monitoring applications, a TUTWSN long-range universal node was designed. The
node had similar hardware with the TUTWSN universal node, but the radio was
replaced to nRF905 [122]. The radio is similar with the TUTWSN long-range node
providing up to multiple kilometers range. The node is presented in Fig. 42.
External SRAM
Antenna
Accelerometer
User interface and
illumination sensor
Transceiver
MCU (bottom side)
Voltage
regulator
Connection area
Programming
connector
Enclosure
Fig. 42. TUTWSN long-range universal node.
Multi-Sensor Node
For extending the sensing capability of nodes, a TUTWSN multi-sensor node was
developed. Computing, communication, and power subsystems were similar to the
TUTWSN universal node. The sensing subsystem contained sensors for acceleration
[204], temperature [42], humidity [167], illumination [12], acoustic (microphone),
orientation and magnetic eld (compass) [74], image (VGA camera) [148], motion
(PIR) [60], and location (GPS) [56]. The TUTWSN multi-sensor node is presented
in Fig. 43.
The designed TUTWSN platforms are summarized in Table 13.
7.1.4 Results
This Thesis has presented twelve TUTWSN sensor node platforms, which have been
designed according to the requirements of TUTWSN protocols and applications.
Along with the evolution of TUTWSN sensor node platforms, their sensing and data
processing capabilities have improved, and lifetime increased.
Low power consumption necessitates high energy-efciency in radio and MCU. Most
of the designed TUTWSN platforms utilize low power and high data rate radios re-
External SRAM (bottom side)
Antenna
Batteries
Illumination sensor
Transceiver (bottom side)
MCU
Voltage regulation
Connection area
Push button and LED
Latches for external SRAM
GPS
GPS antenna
Humidity sensor
Microphone
Temperature sensor
Connector for
VGA camera
Connector for PIR sensor
Compass
Fig. 43. TUTWSN multi-sensor node.
sulting the lowest energy per a transmitted and received bit of data [P7]. Experiments
indicate that the energy efciency of high data rate radios can be exploited only with
an accurate (better than 20 ppm) wake-up timer enabling precise link synchroniza-
tion. In addition, high data rate radios necessitate transmission and reception data
buffers in the radio, due to the speed limitations of low power MCUs. The data buffer
length determines the maximum frame size. TUTWSN sensor node platforms utilize
radios from Nordic Semiconductor having 32 bytes data buffers, which are relatively
short for WSN applications. In practice, the buffer size limits the data payload size
and the number of reserved slots signaled in beacons. Thus, if a radio having larger
data buffers with the same power consumption exists, even higher energy efciency
and data forwarding performance would be achieved.
Experiments also indicate that high scalability necessitates the utilization of radios
having a large number of non-interfering channels. Thus, the platforms utilizing
narrow band radios in the wide 2.4 GHz frequency band enable the highest scalabil-
ity. Platforms operating in the narrow 433 MHz frequency band suffer from limited
scalability and inter-channel interferences. These platforms are the most suitable
for sparse environmental monitoring networks enabling even kilometers long hop
lengths.
The platforms prove that it is feasible to perform versatile and low power sensing
in small nodes. To maximize energy-efciency, it is essential to minimize the duty
Table 13. Summary of TUTWSN sensor node platforms.
Platform MCU Radio Sensors and Interfaces
TUTWSN node XE88LC02 nRF2401A T
TUTWSN position XE88LC02 nRF2401A L
sensor node
TUTWSN gateway XE88LC02 nRF2401A T, RS-232
TUTWSN SoC node 8051 nRF2401A T
TUTWSN temperature PIC18LF4620 nRF2401A T, RS-232
sensor node
TUTWSN long-range node PIC18LF4620 nRF905 T, RS-232
TUTWSN wrist node PIC18LF2520 nRF2401A T
TUTWSN badge node PIC18LF2520 nRF2401A A, T
Multi-radio platform 4*NIOS 4*nRF2401A RS-232
TUTWSN universal node PIC18LF8722 nRF24L01 A, I, T, Eth, RS-232
TUTWSN long-range PIC18LF8722 nRF905 A, I, T, Eth, RS-232
universal node
TUTWSN multi-sensor PIC18LF8722 nRF24L01 A, C, G, M, P, T,
node H, I, IM, RS-232
Abbreviations: acceleration (A), compass (C), GPS (G), humidity (H), illumination (I), image (IM),
linear position (L), microphone (M), Passive infra-red (P), temperature (T), Ethernet (Eth)
cycle of sensing. Quantities changing slowly are easy to monitor, for example tem-
perature and humidity. These sensors can be sampled infrequently at intervals of tens
of seconds. A reliable and energy-efcient monitoring of rapidly changing quantities
is more difcult. Generally, a high frequency sampling of a sensor increases sig-
nicantly energy consumption. Higher energy-efciency is achieved by utilizing a
low power comparator circuit, which generates an interrupt to MCU, if a predeter-
mined threshold is exceeded. These kind of sensors utilized with TUTWSN are the
accelerometer [204] and PIR motion detection sensor [60].
In the newest platform designs, node lifetime has been increased by the two level
dynamic voltage scaling. The sleep mode current consumption is minimized by us-
ing the lowest possible supply voltage, which is 2.0 V in TUTWSN nodes. Higher,
2.7 V supply voltage is used only on-demand, when the MCU clock frequency is
temporarily increased, or when some sensor requires higher voltage, for example the
accelerometer [204]. According to measurements, dynamic voltage scaling reduces
the sleep mode power consumption around 30% compared to the utilization of a con-
stant 2.7 V voltage. When battery voltage drops below 2.7 V, only the lower supply
7.2. TUTWSN Deployments 93
voltage is used, and node functionalities requiring 2.7 V are disabled. Thus, batteries
can be discharged to around 2.1 V voltage extending node lifetime at least tens of
percents [52].
The measured performance of TUTWSN sensor node platforms and protocol stack
in real deployments is presented in the next section.
7.2 TUTWSN Deployments
In this section, three TUTWSN deployments are presented. The main objective of
the deployments is to prove and demonstrate that the MAC and platform designs,
and WSN applications are feasible in practice in real operation conditions. Power
consumption measurements during the deployments provide information about the
energy consumptions of data processing, sensing, and randomsynchronization errors,
which are difcult to estimate analytically.
The rst deployment is a small indoor temperature sensing network, where nodes
utilize a simple protocol stack and the basic MAC functionality. The deployment
proves that the TUTWSN channel access mechanism and sensor node platforms are
feasible, and they can achieve high energy-efciency in practice.
The second deployment discusses a long-termoutdoor environmental monitoring net-
work. The deployment veries the operation of the designed MAC mechanisms and
the TUTWSN long-range nodes in harsh outdoor conditions.
The third deployment is an indoor building monitoring network, where nodes uti-
lize the full TUTWSN protocol stack containing all designed channel access and net-
working mechanisms. The deployment proves that high energy-efciency is achieved
with the full MAC implementation, with mobile nodes, and with a larger and denser
network size than the previous deployments.
The deployments are presented as follows. First, the application is presented shortly.
Then, the power analysis of utilized platforms is presented, which is followed by the
experimental results of the deployment.
7.2.1 Indoor Temperature Sensing Deployment
Temperature sensing is one of the most straightforward applications for WSNs, and
it can be used for example for Heating, Ventilation & Air Conditioning (HVAC)
control in building. Compared to wired sensors, the utilization of WSN technology
will reduce cabling and installation costs, and it makes the system easily extendable.
The data rate and latency requirements are low, but the required node lifetime should
be years [P8].
The indoor temperature sensing deployment [P8] was carried out in 2004. The target
of the deployment was to prove that the TUTWSN channel access mechanism with
accurate local time synchronization is feasible, and that the high energy-efciency
can be achieved in practice using the designed sensor node platforms. Due to prac-
tical reasons, the measured network is rather small containing ve TUTWSN nodes,
one TUTWSN SoC node, and a TUTWSN gateway. Nodes utilized a simple protocol
stack, which consists of the channel access mechanism, path-loss estimation scheme,
network channel beaconing mechanism, and simple upper protocol layers. The nodes
acquired temperature values at 5 s intervals, and routed data to the TUTWSN gate-
way. Utilized network beacon interval was xed to 500 ms [P8].
Power Analysis
The power analysis measures the power consumptions of the main components in
different operation modes. In the all presented deployments, power analysis is per-
formed as follows. MCU power consumption is measured in active and sleep modes.
The sleep mode, only a wake up timer is active. The ADC and sensor power con-
sumptions are measured in active and shut down (off) modes. The radio power con-
sumption is measured in sleep, reception, and transmission modes with a minimum
and maximum transmission power levels. Results are measured using 3 V battery
voltage. The results are used in the performance analysis for specifying the power
consumption characteristics of the hardware.
The power analysis results of the TUTWSN SoC node and the TUTWSN node are
presented in Table 14 [P8]. The sleep mode power consumptions for the platforms
are 15 W and 24 W. The maximum power consumptions are 66.03 mW and 59.55
mW, which are achieved when all components are in the active mode and the radio is
in the receive mode. The radio clearly dominates the momentary power consumption
in both platforms, especially in the reception mode. The node power consumption
over doubles during reception compared to transmission using the lowest -20 dBm
transmission power. The analysis also shows that the 8051 core of the TUTWSN SoC
node has 6 times higher power consumption than the CoolRISC core of TUTWSN
node [P8].
Table 14. The power analysis of the TUTWSN node and TUTWSN SoC node.
MCU ADC Sensor Radio TUTWSN TUTWSN SoC
mode mode mode mode node (mW) node (mW)
active active active RX 59.55 66.03
active active active TX (0dBm) 37.70 44.10
active active active TX (20dBm) 26.60 32.90
active active active sleep 3.04 11.64
active active off sleep 3.01 11.60
active off off sleep 1.69 10.56
sleep off off sleep 0.024 0.015
Experimental Results
First, the functionality and timing accuracy of the MAC design is veried by os-
cilloscope measurements. The current consumption waveforms of a subnode and a
headnode during a superframe are presented in Fig. 44. Transmissions and receptions
produce narrow and high current peaks indicating precise time synchronization and
very low idle listening. MCU activity is shown after transmissions and receptions as
wider and lower current peaks. In the gure, subnode receives network and cluster
beacons, transmits a slot reservation request in a contention slot and a data frame
in a contention-free slot. After each transmission, the subnode receives ACK. The
headnode exchanges data with other nodes resulting activity in the fourth contention
slot and second contention-free slot [P8].
Contention slots
Contention-free slots
Network
beacons
Cluster
beacons
RX
TX
RX RX
RX
TX
RX
TX
RX
TX
RX RX RX
RX
TX
TX
TX
TX
Headnode
Subnode
TX
Contention slots
Contention-free slots
Network
beacons
Cluster
beacons
RX
TX
RX RX
RX
TX
RX
TX
RX
TX
RX RX RX
RX
TX
TX
TX
TX
Headnode
Subnode
TX
Fig. 44. Measured current consumption waveforms of a subnode and a headnode during a
superframe.
Table 15. Measured subnode power consumptions and estimated lifetimes.
Platform Average Lifetime with Lifetime with
power CR2450 2 x AA
TUTWSN node 88.2 W 879 days 10.1 years
TUTWSN SoC node 10.6 mW 6.6 days 30.5 days
TUTWSN SoC node with 80.7 W 960 days 11.0 years
power saving (estimated)
Then, the power consumptions of the platforms operating as subnodes are measured.
The power results with 5 s MAC access cycle length are presented in Table 15 [P8].
The resulted power consumptions of TUTWSN node and TUTWSN SoC node are
88.2 W and 10.6 mW. The signicantly higher power consumption in the SoC node
is caused by an inaccurate wake-up timer having inadequate accuracy for timing the
channel access mechanism. The clock frequency of the timer varied between 1 kHz
and 5 kHz depending on temperature and process variables. However, the calibration
of the timer was possible, but a small program memory size prevented its implemen-
tation in practice. Thus, sleep mode was not utilized during the measurements. The
estimated power consumption with the full power saving would be 80.7 W [P8].
According to the power consumption results, node lifetimes are estimated with two
battery types: a CR2450 lithium coin battery and two serially connected AA alkaline
batteries. With the full power saving, the lifetimes of both platforms with the CR2450
are about 900 days, and with the two AA batteries over 10 years. This proves the
energy-efciency of TUTWSN subnodes in practice. The lifetime of the TUTWSN
SoC node with the limited power saving is below a month. This clearly shows the
importance of sleep mode power consumption and timing accuracy for the achieved
power consumption [P8].
Next, the power consumption of a headnode is measured using the TUTWSN node
platform. The MAC access cycle length is xed to 5 s, and the number of associated
subnodes is varied from0 to 4. The results indicate that headnode power consumption
increases from 390 W to 560 W, as presented in the left side of Fig. 45 [P8]. As
the headnode operation is rotated among nodes, the average power consumption of
the TUTWSN nodes reduce from 390 W to 183 W depending on the number of
subnodes [P8].
The right side of Fig. 45 presents the resulted lifetimes using two AA batteries.
The calculated lifetime of the headnode is between 2.3 and 1.6 years, depending on
the number of subnodes. As the rotation of headnode operation between nodes is
applied, the lifetime of nodes is up to 4.9 years, as the number of subnodes is four
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 1 2 3 4
Subnodes per headnode
P
o
w
e
r

c
o
n
s
u
m
p
t
i
o
n

(
W
)

Headnode
Network average
0
1
2
3
4
5
0 1 2 3 4
L
i
f
e
t
i
m
e

(
y
e
a
r
s
)

Headnode
Network average
Fig. 45. Measured power consumptions of TUTWSN nodes.
times higher than the headnodes. This proves the energy efciency of TUTWSN
headnodes in practice.
The deployment proves that the designed channel access mechanism is functional and
feasible in practical implementations. As the drift of a wake-up timer clock source is
in the order of 20 parts-per-million (ppm) or less, the energy-efciency of subnodes
and headnodes is very high enabling long-lived WSN applications. Similar power
consumption results are also obtained from a linear position sensing deployment per-
formed in 2004 [P9].
7.2.2 Environmental Monitoring Deployment
Environmental monitoring is one of the most potential WSN applications. Such net-
works can be utilized in hostile environments and in large geographical areas to pro-
vide accurate and localized data. By conventional wireless technology, the imple-
mentation of such functionality is very expensive and difcult requiring large battery
packs and manual network conguration.
The described deployment has been the rst large-scale and long-term eld test of
TUTWSN network. The deployment has been active from autumn 2005 and is still
running. A four months time period nearly at the beginning of the deployment has
been published in [181]. The objective of the deployment has been to prove that
the designed TUTWSN long-range nodes can survive and maintain high energy-
efciency in arctic operation conditions having high temperature variations and mois-
ture levels. In addition, an objective was to prove that the designed path-loss esti-
mation scheme is feasible in harsh outdoor conditions, and that nodes can maintain
adequate link reliability with long hop lengths.
The deployment utilized 20 TUTWSN long-range nodes, which formed a multi-hop
network in an area of few square kilometers. One of the nodes was equipped with a
RS-232 interface and operated as a sink and a gateway to a computer. The resulted
network was very sparse and the distances between nodes were up to 3 km. Nodes
utilized a MAC layer utilizing the designed channel access, NCB and path-loss me-
tering mechanisms, and the multi-cluster-tree topology. ENDP was not used. MAC
utilized 2 s access cycle length, 500 ms network beacon interval, 4 contention slots
and at maximum 8 contention-free slots per a superframe. Upper protocol layers con-
tained a simple multi-hop routing protocol, API, and applications for data gathering
and node diagnostics [181].
Power Analysis
The results of a power analysis are presented in Table 16. The sleep mode power con-
sumption is 31 W. The maximum power consumption is 95.9 mW, which is achieved
as all components are in active mode and the nRF905 radio is in transmission mode
at 10 dBm transmission power. The power consumption is signicantly higher than
in nodes having the nRF2401A radio. Also, radio data rate is only 50 kbps, which
further increases the energy consumption of exchanged frames. However, expected
transmission range is nearly ten times longer than with the nRF2401A radio, which
compensates well the higher energy consumption.
Table 16. The static power consumption of the TUTWSN long-range node.
MCU mode ADC mode Sensor mode Radio mode Power (mW)
active active active TX (10dBm) 95.9
active active active RX 43.3
active active active sleep 5.91
active active off sleep 3.68
active off off sleep 3.17
sleep off off sleep 0.031
Experimental Results
The deployment provided experimental results about the network operation in forested,
low temperature outdoor environment. According to the experiments, a forest atten-
uates radio wave propagation very signicantly. Achieved radio range in a forest was
below 100 meters, while the longest measured hop lengths were near to 3 km. Also,
radio wave propagation was notably affected by snow fall, rain, humidity, temper-
ature, and the frost and snow in trees, ground, and around the nodes. Hence, the
quality of radio links altered continuously although the nodes were stationary [181].
The outdoor temperatures during the test period from November 2005 to March 2006
ranged from -31.5

C to 12.0

C. High temperature variation reduced signicantly
the accuracy of crystals and thus, the accuracy of time synchronization. Some nodes
were inside buildings and other outdoors resulting in nearly 50

C difference in the
operation temperatures. According to the experiments, the implemented sensor node
platforms performed well during the whole test period [181].
Network lifetime with 1600 mAh CR123 batteries was 6 - 8 months. As a com-
parison, the calculated lifetime using two AA-type batteries per node is around one
year. It should be noted that the network trafc consisted not only of temperature
measurements but also diagnostics information, which increased load. Lifetime was
lower than in the deployments utilizing nRF2401A radios due to the higher power
consumption and lower data rate of the radio [181].
7.2.3 Building Monitoring Deployment
The building monitoring deployment has been operating in indoor conditions at Tam-
pere University of Technology premises from the year 2005. The network has been
used for demonstrating the TUTWSN technology, for verifying the operation of de-
signed protocols, and for measuring the network performance. The network has been
measuring various quantities, for example temperature, humidity, CO
2
, motion, ac-
celeration, and illumination [95, 182, 184], [P4].
The presented deployment [95] was carried out in 2006. One of the main objectives of
the deployment was to prove that the ENDP scheme and multi-cluster-tree topology
are energy-efcient and feasible in practice. The deployment was also used for mea-
suring the energy consumption of link failures and neighbor discovery operations,
and to evaluate the effect of node mobility on them.
The deployment utilized up to 28 TUTWSN temperature sensor nodes, which mea-
sured temperature values at 30 s intervals. Ten of the nodes were equipped with a PIR
motion detection sensor. The platforms are executing the TUTWSN protocol stack
containing the full MAC layer design, an interest-based routing protocol, API, and
applications for sensing and self-diagnostics [182]. Utilized access cycle length and
network beacon interval were 2 s and 500 ms [95].
Power Analysis
The results of a power analysis are presented in Table 17. The sleep mode power
consumption is 37 W. The power consumption at transmission mode is between
29.57 mW and 42.17 mW, as the transmission power level ranges from -20 dBm to 0
dBm. The maximum power of 60.17 mW is consumed as MCU is active and radio is
in the reception mode.
Experimental Measurements
The deployment provided two main results: the power consumption of a stationary
network, and the performance of the ENDP scheme in a mobile network.
The power consumptions of various subnodes and headnodes were measured in a sta-
tionary network, where headnodes routed data to a sink using several parallel routes.
The routes were changing dynamically for adapting to varying RF propagation con-
ditions and for balancing energy consumptions between nodes. ENDP was not used
and the number of maintained synchronized links (k) was xed to 2. The average
power consumptions of subnodes and headnodes were 257 W and 693 W [95].
The results are 134 W and 300 W higher than in the MAC layer performance anal-
ysis. The difference is mostly caused by the energy consumptions of data processing,
Table 17. The static power consumption of the TUTWSN temperature sensor node.
MCU mode Radio mode Power (mW)
active RX 60.17
active TX (0dBm) 42.17
active idle 3.29
active sleep 3.17
sleep sleep 0.037
sensor sampling, and the frame exchanges caused by the routing layer, which are
ignored in the analysis. In addition, the implementation is not fully optimized. Uti-
lized time margins for reception are longer than the optimal margins utilized in the
analysis. By noticing the non-ideal implementation, the obtained experimental mea-
surements are analogous with the analytical results, and the energy-efciency of the
MAC layer design is veried.
The performance of ENDP was measured in a network containing eight stationary
headnodes and one mobile subnode [P4]. During the measurements, k was varied
from 2 to 4. The mobile node transmitted a 32 byte diagnostics data frame on a
contention-free time slot at 8 s intervals. In addition, control frames for associa-
tion and slot reservation were transmitted after communication link changes. Three
mobility levels were utilized: 0 m/s, 1 m/s, and 3 m/s [P4].
The measured power consumption are presented in Fig. 46. Without ENDP, the
power consumptions at 0 m/s, 1 m/s and 3 m/s mobility levels were 326 W, 2.18
mW and 4.76 mW. As ENDP was utilized, the power consumptions with an optimal
k value were 627 W (k = 2), 933 W (k = 3), and 968 W (k = 3). Thus, the achieved
energy saving is 57% - 80% compared to the situation without ENDP. At higher val-
ues of k, the energy consumption of maintained synchronized links increases, which
reduces the achieved energy-efciency. At lower values of k, the probability of nd-
ing a suitable neighbor using SDUs decreases increasing the energy consumption of
network scans [P4].
The measured power consumption is higher than the analysis results presented in the
Chapter 5. This is caused by the energy consumptions of data processing and the
synchronization inaccuracy of a protocol implementation. In addition, the operation
0
1
2
3
4
5
Mobility: no Mobility: 1 m/s Mobility: 3 m/s
M
e
a
s
u
r
e
d

p
o
w
e
r

(
m
W
) without ENDP
ENDP, k = 2
ENDP, k = 3
ENDP, k = 4
Fig. 46. Measured power consumption with and without ENDP at three levels of mobility.
environment had signicant uctuation in the radio link quality depending on node
position due to shadowing and multi-path propagation. Thus, the actual link failure
rate was much higher than in the analysis. However, the results prove that ENDP
improves signicantly the energy-efciency of mobile nodes. ENDP can be used
with IEEE 802.15.4, TUTWSN MAC and other synchronized low duty-cycle MAC
protocols having regular beacon transmissions [P4].
8. SUMMARY OF PUBLICATIONS
The publications of this Thesis are based on the work of the author during years
between 2003 and 2007. This chapter summarizes the contents of the publications
and claries the contribution of the author. The co-authors have seen and agree with
the descriptions. None of the publications have previously been used as a part of a
doctoral thesis.
The publications can be divided into three main groups. The publications [P1] -
[P4] propose protocols and energy-efcient mechanisms for WSNs. The publications
[P5], [P6] cover the performance analysis and optimizations of existing protocols.
The publications [P7] - [P10] discuss the implementation of hardware prototypes and
real application deployments.
Publication [P1] is a book chapter presenting a summary of TUTWSN MAC layer
design. Sections 13.1 - 13.3. present the channel access mechanism, network topol-
ogy formation and superframe interlacing, which are previously unpublished mate-
rial. Sections 13.4 - 13.8. present the energy-efcient neighbor discovery protocol,
the path-loss estimation scheme and the measured power consumption of TUTWSN
MAC, which have been reproduced from the publications [P2], [P4], [P5], [P9],
and [183].
The author has been the main architect of the TUTWSM MAC layer, and he has
specialized in energy-efciency. The publication was mainly written by the author.
Jukka Suhonen reproduced the section 13.5 from publication [183]. Mauri Kuori-
lehto gave important ideas for the MAC design and revised the draft version of the
publication. Prof. Marko Hnnikinen and Prof. Timo D. Hmlinen have super-
vised the work, outlined the functional requirements, and revised the draft version of
the publication.
Publication [P2] presents the path-loss estimation scheme, which allows signal strength
measurements using simple radios without RSSI functionality. The performance of
the scheme is experimentally veried by indoor and outdoor measurements. In addi-
tion, performance analysis indicates very low energy-overhead of the scheme, and a
104 8. Summary of Publications
signicant energy saving in ZigBee by replacing an IEEE 802.15.4 compliant radio
by a simpler one.
The author designed the path-loss estimation scheme, as well as designed and im-
plemented hardware platforms. In addition, the author developed the performance
models, performed the performance analysis, and experimental performance mea-
surements. The publication was written by the author. Jukka Suhonen implemented
by scheme in software and gave ideas for optimizing the performance. Prof. Marko
Hnnikinen and Prof. Timo D. Hmlinen gave ideas for the mechanism and re-
vised the draft version of the publication.
Publication [P3] proposes the use of the network channel beaconing scheme in Zig-
Bee. The publication presents an introduction on ZigBee protocol stack and neighbor
discovery operation, and implementation guidelines for the network channel beacon-
ing scheme. The performance of the scheme is proven by a performance analysis and
simulations. In addition, an optimal network beacon rate has been determined as the
function of node mobility and cluster size.
The author designed the network channel beaconing scheme, as well as performed the
performance analysis and optimizations. The publication was written by the author,
except the Section 7. Jukka Suhonen performed the simulations by NS-2 and wrote
the Section 7 presenting the simulation results. In addition, Mauri Kuorilehto, Prof.
Marko Hnnikinen and Prof. Timo D. Hmlinen gave ideas for the mechanism
and revised the draft version of the publication.
Publication [P4] presents the energy-efcient neighbor discovery protocol for mo-
bile WSNs. The publication presents the mechanism for proactive distribution of
neighbor information and a neighbor discovery algorithm for using the distributed
information for neighbor discovery. The performance of the protocol is proven by
performance analysis and experimental measurements.
The author has been the main architect of the energy-efcient neighbor discovery
protocol. He designed the mechanisms for distributing and utilizing neighbor in-
formation in network, performed performance analysis and optimizations, designed
and implemented hardware prototypes, and performed experimental measurements.
Jukka Suhonen improved the utilization of the neighbor information by designing a
neighbor discovery algorithm, and wrote the software with the help of Ville Kaseva.
The main parts of publication were written by the author. Jukka Suhonen wrote the
Subsection 3.2 presenting the pseudocode of the algorithm. Mauri Kuorilehto, Prof.
Marko Hnnikinen and Prof. Timo D. Hmlinen gave ideas for the protocol and
revised the draft version of the publication.
105
Publication [P5] presents the optimization of beacon transmission rate for reducing
energy consumption in synchronized low-duty cycle MACprotocols. The publication
divides the energy consumption of a WSN node in a node start-up, data exchange and
network maintenance energies, and then focuses on minimizing the network mainte-
nance energy. It has been shown that the network maintenance power is a sum of
beacon exchange and network scanning powers, and an optimal network beacon rate
is a function of average link failure interval, and radio power consumption.
The author determined the performance models and analysis for beacon rate opti-
mization, as well as designed and implemented the reference hardware platform. The
publication was written by the author. Prof. Marko Hnnikinen and Prof. Timo D.
Hmlinen gave ideas for the protocol and revised the draft version of the publica-
tion.
Publication [P6] presents a performance analysis of ZigBee in a large-scale wireless
sensor network application. The analysis focuses on a cluster-tree network topol-
ogy and beacon-enabled mode. Analysis includes models for a hardware platform,
channel access mechanism, and contention. As results, average power consumptions,
goodputs and energy-efciencies are obtained with various MAC parameter values.
Analysis results are validated by simulations.
The author determined the performance models and performed the performance anal-
ysis. The publication was written by the author, except Section 7. Mauri Kuorilehto
performed simulations and wrote the Section 7 presenting the simulation results.
Prof. Marko Hnnikinen and Prof. Timo D. Hmlinen gave ideas for the anal-
ysis and revised the draft version of the publication.
Publication [P7] presents a study and analysis of energy-efcient components for
WSN node platforms. In addition, photovoltaics and magnetic coupling based en-
ergy scavenging mechanisms are experimentally measured. According to the study,
a WSN node prototype is implemented using partly evaluation boards of component
manufacturers. In addition, a random access communication protocol and a simple
sensing application has been implemented for demonstrating the performance of the
prototype.
The author performed the study, analysis, and measurements. In addition, the author
designed and implemented the WSN node prototype and the software. The publi-
cation was written by the author. Prof. Marko Hnnikinen and Prof. Timo D.
Hmlinen gave ideas for the publication and revised the draft version of the publi-
cation.
Publication [P8] presents the design and implementation of an ultra low energy WSN
106 8. Summary of Publications
for in-building temperature sensing. The publication contains the design, imple-
mentation and performance measurements of two prototypes: TUTWSN node, and
TUTWSN SoC prototype. The presented WSN executes a simple TUTWSN protocol
stack containing the MAC layer, a multi-hop routing with a xed stationary routing
tree, and a simple sensing application. Results indicate nearly 5 years network life-
time for TUTWSN nodes, when each node is powered by two AA-type batteries.
Moreover, TUTWSN SoC prototype is around the size of a 5 cents coin, but inaccu-
rate wake-up timer limits severely its energy-efciency.
The author performed the design and implementation of the prototypes. In addition,
the author designed the simple protocol stack utilized in the prototypes. Moreover,
the author performed the performance measurements and analysis. The publication
was written by the author. Prof. Marko Hnnikinen and Prof. Timo D. Hmlinen
gave ideas for the prototypes and revised the draft version of the publication.
Publication [P9] presents the design and implementation of a WSN for industrial lin-
ear position sensing application. The design and implementation of position sensing
prototype and TUTWSN gateway having RS-232 interface are presented. The im-
plemented network executes the same simple TUTWSN protocol stack than in [P8].
Results indicate very high energy-efciency, but the small capacity of used recharge-
able battery limits network lifetime to around 2 months.
The author designed and implemented the prototypes. In addition, the author de-
signed the protocol stack utilized in the prototypes, and performed the performance
measurements and analysis. The publication was written by the author. Prof. Marko
Hnnikinen and Prof. Timo D. Hmlinen gave ideas for the prototypes and revised
the draft version of the publication.
Publication [P10] presents the design and implementation of a high-performance
multi-radio platform. The publication focuses on hardware design covering electron-
ics design and a multi-processor design in FPGA. For demonstrating the applicability
of the platform, two reference applications are presented, which are targeting to min-
imize routing latency, and to maximize routing throughput.
The author designed and implemented the electronics of the prototype. In addition,
the author designed and analyzed the reference applications. Tero Arpinen designed
and implemented the multi-processor design in the FPGA. The main parts of the
publication was written by the author. Tero Arpinen wrote the Section 3 present-
ing the multi-processor architecture. Prof. Marko Hnnikinen and Prof. Timo D.
Hmlinen gave ideas for the prototype design and revised the draft version of the
publication.
9. CONCLUSIONS
The emerging of low-energy WSNs has been possible by the recent advances in low-
power communication and computing circuits. Still, the power consumption of hard-
ware is too high for long-lived WSN applications without energy-efcient communi-
cation protocols and applications. The main research problem is the combination of
a scalable and adaptive multi-hop networking with constrained hardware resources
and scarce energy budget.
This Thesis has presented a survey of existing energy-efcient MAC protocols and
standards. It was shown that none of existing MAC protocols fullled adequately the
energy-efciency, scalability, and adaptivity requirements of low-energy WSNs. This
motivated the design of a new MAC layer called TUTWSN MAC concentrating on
channel access and networking mechanisms. The main focus has been on ultra-low
duty cycle frame exchanges, scalable network self-conguration, and energy-efcient
neighbor discovery mechanisms improving adaptivity against network dynamics.
The second outcome of this Thesis has been sensor node platforms. The development
of low-power platforms has been vital for measuring, validating, and demonstrating
the designed communication protocols in real operation conditions. A survey of low-
power hardware components and sensor node platforms revealed the potential to de-
sign lower energy platforms than existing ones. This motivated the design of twelve
TUTWSN sensor node platforms, which were emerged together with the TUTWSN
protocol stack and applications. The performance measurements of the platforms
were used for developing and optimizing MAC layer mechanisms.
The third outcome of this Thesis has been performance models and analysis. Per-
formance models have been presented for the state-of-the-art channel access mecha-
nisms and their energy-efciencies have been compared against TUTWSN MAC.
The results of this Thesis enable the implementation of multi-hop WSNs in harsh and
dynamic operation conditions with years of lifetime using current low-cost compo-
nents. In the MAC layer, the results have been achieved by minimizing idle listening,
overhearing, collisions, and control trafc overhead. In sensor node platforms, the
108 9. Conclusions
results have been achieved by using transceivers having high data-rate and several
non-interfering channels, and hardware components having low sleep mode power
consumption and accurate wake-up timers. The performance analysis and compar-
ison to existing proposals and standards have shown that TUTWSN MAC achieves
the highest energy-efciency in both router and leaf nodes. Compared to the theoreti-
cally ideal MAC, the energy consumption of TUTWSN MAC is only 2.85% - 27.1%
higher, depending on trafc load, radio, and node type. IEEE 802.15.4 performs
the second best resulting in 2.92% to 229% energy overhead compared to the ideal
MAC. It has been shown that TUTWSN can maintain high energy-efciency also in
dynamic networks. The long-term deployments with the platforms have validated the
feasibility of the MAC layer and platform designs in real operation environment.
The presented MAC layer mechanisms are presented and analyzed clearly and sep-
arately on each other, and they can be utilized with other MAC layer designs, and
sensor node platforms. The developed sensor node platforms present a good low-
power hardware design and they are applicable for experimenting other applications
and protocols. The performance models can determine the energy consumption of
channel access mechanisms simply, clearly, and accurately, and they can be easily
adapted to other hardware, protocols, and applications.
Although the absolute energy consumption of low-power components constantly re-
duces, it can be assumed that the operation principles will not change dramatically.
Thus, the principles and results of this Thesis are valid also in future, while it is ex-
pected that the power consumption, physical size, and cost of implementations will
reduce.
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PUBLICATIONS
132 Publications
PUBLICATION 1
M. Kohvakka, "TUTWSN MAC Protocol," book chapter in Ultra-low energy wire-
less sensor networks in practice: theory, realization and deployment, M. Kuorilehto,
M. Kohvakka, J. Suhonen, P. Hmlinen, M. Hnnikinen, and T.D. Hmlinen,
Chichester: John Wiley, 2007, pp. 145182.
2007 Copyright John Wiley & Sons Limited. Reproduced with permission.
The publication is intentionally excluded from the electronic version due to copyright
reasons.

PUBLICATION 2
M. Kohvakka, J. Suhonen, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, Transmission
Power Based Path Loss Metering for Wireless Sensor Networks, in Proceedings
of the 17th Annual IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile
Radio Communications (PIMRC 2006), Helsinki, Finland, Sep. 1114, 2006, pp.
15.
2006 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from the proceedings of the 17th Annual
IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communica-
tions 2006.
This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the
IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of the Tampere University
of Technologys products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is
permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or
promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution
must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs-permissions@ieee.org.
The 17th Annual IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC06)
1-4244-0330-8/06/$20.002006 IEEE

TRANSMISSION POWER BASED PATH LOSS METERING FOR WIRELESS
SENSOR NETWORKS
Mikko Kohvakka, Jukka Suhonen, Marko Hnnikinen and Timo D. Hmlinen
Tampere University of Technology, Institute of Digital and Computer Systems
Tampere, Finland

ABSTRACT

The metering of path loss to neighbouring nodes is vital in
multi-hop Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) for managing
network self-configuration, robust data routing, and node lo-
calization. Conventionally, path loss is measured by a Re-
ceived Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) mechanism of a
transceiver. Yet, the lowest hardware complexity, energy con-
sumption and cost are reached by transceivers without RSSI.
We present a new simple transmission power based path loss
metering method for WSNs without RSSI mechanism. The
method determines path loss from frames transmitted at dif-
ferent power levels. Performance measurements with physical
WSN prototypes indicate sufficient accuracy for network
management. According to performance analysis, the power
consumption of the proposed method is below 10 W. An
energy analysis in a large IEEE 802.15.4 network indicates
51% to 69% energy saving compared to RSSI-equipped
transceivers by using the path loss metering method together
with a simple and low power transceiver.
I. INTRODUCTION

Self-configuring Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are a rela-
tively new family of wireless ad hoc networks developed for
low data rate monitoring and actuating in home, office, indus-
trial and outdoor environments [1]. WSN consist of even
thousands of battery-powered WSN nodes, which combine
sensing, processing and wireless communication with ultra-
low energy consumption, size and cost. As the number of
nodes is large, battery or node replacements are difficult, and
nodes should operate for months to years without mainte-
nance of any kind. The energy consumption in WSN nodes is
typically dominated by transceiver circuitry [2]. To minimize
transmission energy consumption, data is routed in the net-
work by multiple low-energy hops instead of a single high-
energy transmission. Communication links are formed dy-
namically with any node in a range creating a mesh network
topology.
An energy efficient and robust WSN operation requires that
nodes are capable to measure radio wave attenuation (path
loss) to neighbouring nodes. This information is crucial for
efficient network self-configuration and routing; nodes can
form and maintain robust routing paths with sufficient radio
link quality and energy efficient hop lengths [3]. A weakened
radio link can be recognized and route changed before an
actual link failure. In addition, transmission power levels are
dynamically minimized for reducing network energy con-
sumption and interferences with other nodes. As radio wave
attenuates with the transmission distance [4], measured path
loss can be used for estimating distances between nodes
(ranging), and further for node localization [5]. Location in-
formation improves the applicability of gathered data in a
dynamic network, and allows even random node deploy-
ments.
In practice, a path loss is estimated by measured signal
strengths of received frames and their known transmission
power levels [5]. Conventionally, signal strength is measured
by a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) mechanism
implemented on a transceiver PHY layer. A transceiver calcu-
lates the RSSI based on the gain in the receiver chain in con-
junction with the energy of the signal after channel filtering,
and stores the value in a register. Yet, the simplest and lowest
power commercial off-the-shelf radio transceivers lack the
quite complex RSSI mechanism. To be able to achieve the
lowest energy and cost WSN realizations, a transceiver with-
out RSSI may be the only option, and the implementation of a
path loss metering otherwise is required.
In this paper we present a new type of a path loss metering
mechanism for minimum power WSNs. The method utilizes
receiver sensitivity as a simple signal strength meter, and es-
timates path loss according to succeed and failed receptions
of beacon frames transmitted at different transmission power
levels. This is possible since almost every transceiver has an
adjustable transmission power. The accuracy of the path loss
metering method is measured with low power WSN proto-
types in indoor and outdoor environments. Achieved energy
efficiency is demonstrated in an IEEE 802.15.4 Low-Rate
Wireless Personal Area Network (LR-WPAN) [6] by analyz-
ing coordinator power consumption with different low power
transceivers.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. A detailed de-
scription of the method is presented in Section 2. Section 3
presents performance measurements and power consumption
analysis. Section 4 concludes the paper.
II. PATH LOSS METERING DESCRIPTION

The presented path loss metering method is designed for low
duty cycle Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols with a
periodic wakeup scheme. In a periodic wakeup scheme, data
transmissions and reception are performed in short data ex-
change periods, while the rest of time nodes are in inactive
mode conserving energy, as presented in Figure 1. Beacon
transmissions at the beginning of data exchange periods are
used for synchronizing data exchanges and signalling network
Beacon Data exchange period
Inactive period Node 1
Node 2
Beacon interval

Figure 1: Periodic wakeup scheme.
management information. Most well-known low duty cycle
MAC protocols are S-MAC [7] and its variants, and a beacon-
enabled mode of LR-WPAN [6].
In this paper, a path loss A means the signal attenuation be-
tween a transmitter output and receiver input ports including
antenna gain, and the losses in impedance matching network.
Thus, A is determined as the ratio of transmission power level
P
T
to received signal strength P
R
that is measured according
to succeed and failed frame receptions and receiver sensitivity
S
min
. Receiver sensitivity is defined as the minimum mean
power received at the input port at which the Bit Error Rate
(BER) does not exceed a specified value (typically 0.1%).
This yields that a frame of l bits can be received successfully
exactly at the probability of (1 - BER)
l
, when P
R
= S
min
. For
simplification we approximate that P
R
S
min
, when a frame is
received successfully. The upper and lower limits for the path
loss are estimated by retransmitting a frame with different
transmission power levels, and detecting the lowest transmis-
sion power resulting a successful reception P
T(succeed)
and the
highest power resulting a failed reception P
T(failed)
as

( ) ( )
( ) ( )
max min
T failed T succeed
R R
P P
A
P P
< . (1)
As an example, calculated path loss values for a transceiver
having S
min
= -85 dBm and beacon transmission powers from
-20 dBm to 0 dBm are presented in Table 1. Since path loss is
typically quite equal for both directions [8], the same path
loss is assumed to apply for transmissions to neighbours.
The path loss metering is implemented on MAC protocol
beacons due to the following reasons. First, the interval of
beacon transmissions of low duty cycle MAC protocols is
very suitable for path loss measurements. In addition, beacon
transmissions are synchronized, which allows the minimiza-
tion of reception time. Beacons are also quite short, which
provides energy efficient implementation without the need for
a new frame type. Moreover, path loss information is typi-
cally needed together with the node status information trans-
mitted in beacons for network management.
The operational principle of the path loss metering method
is presented in Figure 2, where Node 3 measures the path
losses between Node 3 and two other nodes (Node 1 and
Node 2) by receiving their periodic beacons. Achieved ranges
of beacon transmissions with four power levels are marked by
circles. As Node 1 is quite close to Node 3, a beacon transmit-
ted at the second lowest transmission power level can be re-
ceived resulting low path loss. As a distance from Node 2 is
much longer, only the highest power beacon is successfully
received. This indicates a high path loss.
For reducing energy consumption, beacons are transmitted
in the increased order of transmission power. This enables
that beacon frames are received until one reception succeeds,
after which the receiver may be switched to a power down
mode. As the contents of the beacons are similar, the recep-
tion of higher power beacons does not bring any additional
information, and they may be ignored.
III. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

The performance analysis of the path loss metering method
consists of accuracy measurements in indoor and outdoor
environment, and power consumption analysis in a large LR-
WPAN network.
A. Accuracy Measurements
The accuracy of the path loss metering method is measured
experimentally by two TUTWSN prototype platforms, pre-
sented in Figure 3. The platform utilizes 2.4 GHz low power
Nordic Semiconductor nRF2401A transceiver, and a Micro-
chip PIC18LF4620 microcontroller. The transceiver has ad-
justable transmit power level from -20 dBm to 0 dBm with
four steps. Receiver sensitivity is -85 dBm at 1 Mbps data
rate. A full-wave loop antenna provides a dipole-type radia-
tion pattern, and around 4 dBi directivity (simulated). Since
the transceiver lacks the RSSI mechanism, the platform is
suitable for testing the performance of the path loss metering.
The transmission ranges of beacons with four different
transmission power levels (-20 dBm, -10 dBm, -5 dBm and 0
dBm) are measured outdoors in a park in a fairly open space,
and in a roadside mostly line-of-sight conditions. One plat-
Table 1: Path loss according to
succeed (1) and failed (0) receptions.
transmission power level
Resulted path loss -20 dBm -10 dBm -5 dBm 0 dBm
65 dB 1 1 1 1
65 75 dB 0 1 1 1
75 80 dB 0 0 1 1
80 85 dB 0 0 0 1
Node 1
(TX)
Node 2
(TX)
Node 3
(RX)
Range with the
highest power
beacon
Range with the
lowest power
beacon
Lowest power beacon
Highest power beacon
Failed receptions
Successful reception
Node 1 Node 2
Node 3
Successful
reception
Radio
power
down

Figure 2: Path loss metering operational principle.
Antenna
Transceiver
Battery
MCU
Temperature
sensor
Voltage regulation
Push button
and LED

Figure 3: TUTWSN prototype platform.
form is placed 1.5 m above a snowy ground and configured to
periodically transmitting beacons. Another node is moved
away from the transmitter around 2 m above the ground, and
is receiving beacons. The beams of loop antennas are directed
towards each other. The minimum transmission power levels
of succeed beacon receptions (min(P
T(succeed)
)) are recorded as
a function of the distance between the transmitting and re-
ceiving node, as presented in Figure 4. In an open space, a
path loss increases quite proportionally to the distance. Bea-
cons transmitted at -20 dBm, -10 dBm, -5 dBm, and 0 dBm
power levels are received until around 25m, 190 m, 350 m
and 370 m distances, respectively. In a roadside, a significant
radio wave fading and gaining is caused by reflections from
ground and surrounding snowy trees and rocks. Beacons
transmitted at -20 dBm, -10 dBm, -5 dBm, and 0 dBm power
levels are received until around 60 m, 130 m, 340 m and 440
m distances, respectively. The results are reasonable and well
comparable to RSSI measurements, such as presented in [8].
The accuracy of the path loss metering method should be
sufficient for simple outdoor localization algorithms, such as
presented in [5]. According to the measurements, antenna
directivity and radio wave reflections have higher effect on
the ranging accuracy than the path loss measurements mecha-
nism itself. Localization accuracy would be highly improved
by a more omni-directional antenna, such as a monopole.
Indoor measurements are conducted in office environment,
presented in Figure 5. A beacon transmitting node is marked
with TX and placed on a corridor around 2 m above a floor
such that antenna beam is directed along the long corridor.
The measuring points are marked with the numbers 1 to 4,
according to the minimum power level the successfully re-
ceived beacons are transmitted with. The measurement results
are very reasonable. With the smallest -20 dBm transmission
power around 40 m distance is achieved. A glass door and a
wall attenuate a radio wave 5 to 10 dB.
The accuracy of the path loss metering is sufficient for
managing robust network operation. The accuracy for indoor
node localization depends on antenna directivity and radiation
power, and node density. Since walls and doors cause very
significant signal attenuation and reflections, high node den-
sity, omni-directional antennas and very low radiation power
provide the highest localization accuracy.
B. Power Consumption Analysis
First, the average power consumed by the beacon transmis-
sions and receptions (beacon exchange) caused by the path
loss metering mechanism is analyzed. Only the transceiver
power consumption is analyzed ignoring all other hardware
components. For the analysis, a Nordic Semiconductor
nRF24L01 transceiver is selected. The transceiver operates at
2.4 GHz frequency band and has 2 Mbps data rate. To the
best of our knowledge, this is the most energy efficient com-
mercial off-the-shelf transceiver available today having 6.25
nJ/bit energy consumption in RX mode and 3.5 nJ/bit energy
consumption in TX mode with -18 dBm power level. The
transceiver has a carrier detect functionality, but lacks RSSI.
In the analysis, a beacon transmission power level is adjusted
between -18 dBm and 0 dBm. A beacon length is 24 B to
comply with the LR-WPAN standard [6].
During a beacon interval, one set of one to four beacons are
transmitted and received. This corresponds to the operation of
a routing node in WSN. Transceiver start-up transients, crys-
tal inaccuracy (20 ppm), and sleep mode power consumption
are included in the analysis. For comparison, the same analy-
sis is performed for a LR-WPAN compliant Chipcon CC2420
transceiver. Since the transceiver has an RSSI mechanism,
only one beacon transmission and one reception during a bea-
con interval are required for a basic MAC operation.
The power consumption results are presented in Figure 6.
The beacon exchange power consumption is typically far be-
low 10 W. With 4 s beacon interval (BI) a basic MAC op-
eration with single beacon transmissions and receptions con-
sumes 3.51 W with the nRF24L01 transceiver. If two bea-
1 1 1 1
2
3
4
4
4
1
1
1 1
1
2
2
2
1
3 3
4 4 4
3
3
2
2 1
1 1 1
1
3
4
2
1
3
1
4
4
3
2
2 1
2
4
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3
4
4
4
4
3
1 2 3 4
TX
-20 dBm -10 dBm -5 dBm 0 dBm Out of range
40 m 70 m
Glass door
Glass door
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
The minimum transmission power
of the received beacons:

Figure 5: Test points and the minimum transmission powers of received beacons in office environment.
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
0 100 200 300 400 500
Distance (m)
m
i
n
(
P
T
(
s
u
c
c
e
e
d
)
)

(
d
B
m
)
Roadside
Open space
Out of
range

Figure 4: The minimum beacon transmission powers as a
function of transmission distance in outdoor environment.
cons are sufficient for the path loss metering method, the in-
crease for power consumption is 2.78 W resulting 6.29 W
beacon exchange power. With four beacons, beacon exchange
power is 13.6 W. For comparison, the CC2420 transceiver
beacon exchange power consumption with single beacons and
RSSI measurements is 20.08 W. Clearly, the increase of
transmitted beacons increase measurement accuracy, but raise
beacon exchange energy consumption. Energy can be saved
by transmitting two beacons, but randomizing the transmis-
sion power of the lower power beacon. For maintaining net-
work connectivity, the range of beacon transmissions must
not vary, and the higher power beacon is always transmitted
with the highest power. Thus, a node can accurately measure
path loss during the time of few beacon intervals.
For demonstrating the energy efficiency of an entire WSN
node utilizing the path loss metering method, the power con-
sumption of a routing LR-WPAN coordinator is mathemati-
cally analyzed in a large-scale WSN application. Network
energy consumption is minimized by selecting a cluster-tree
network topology with a beacon-enabled mode. The analyzed
coordinator routes data from ten associated devices (n
D
) and
one child coordinator (n
C
), which forwards data from 200
child and grandchild nodes (n
DL
). A low data rate sensing
application is executed, where each node transmits a sensor
value to uplink direction at 30 s intervals (I
U
). Each sensing
item (L
S
) is 8 B long containing a sensor value, a node ID,
and a time stamp. In addition, control and configuration data
is broadcasted to downlink direction at 120 s intervals (I
D
).
This results totally 460 bits/s throughput requirement through
the coordinator. A MAC superframe order is fixed to 2 result-
ing 57.6 ms Contention Access Period (CAP) length. Net-
work dynamics and link failures are included in the analysis
by averagely 1 hour network scan interval (I
NS
), where each
scan consumes energy E
NS
. A probabilistic number of beacon
reception attempts (p
B
) is 75% of transmitted beacons (n
B
), as
more than one beacons are transmitted.
The performance of LR-WPAN is analyzed in a star net-
work in [9]. We complement the performance analysis with
contention models in a cluster-tree network. LR-WPAN MAC
is prone to two types of collisions; collisions caused by the
hidden node problem, and the selection of a same backoff slot
with another node. The probability of a hidden node collision
(p
h
) between two nodes associated with a same coordinator,
but outside the range of each other is modelled with the dura-
tions of a data (t
DATA
) frame, an acknowledgement (t
ACK
)
frame and CAP (t
CAP
) as
2 .
DATA ACK
h
CAP
t t
p
t
+
= (2)
Nodes randomize backoff delays using a backoff exponent
(BE) initialized with macMinBE (default is 3). The probabil-
ity (p
d
) that two nodes select the same backoff delay is

1
.
2 1
d BE
p =
(3)
For modelling the probability of a successful transmission
(p
s
), models for the average number of data transmissions (d)
and contenting nodes (C) in CAP are defined as

2 1 2
C DL
D
U D U D
n n
d BI n u
I I I N I
( | |
= + + +
( |
( \ .
, (4)
2 1 2
min ,1 min ,1 ,
C DL
D
U D U D
n n
C BIu n BIu
I I I N I
( ( | | | |
= + + +
( ( | |
( ( \ . \ .
(5)
where u is the expected number of retransmissions. I
D
is di-
vided by 2 for approximating the effect of indirect communi-
cation. Coordinator aggregates data from n
DL
nodes by trans-
mitting N (defined as 12) sensing items in a frame. Thus, p
s

can be modelled as
( ) ( ) 1 1 ,
hd C
s h d
p s p p = (6)
where h is the probability that two nodes in the range of a
coordinator have a hidden node relationship (41% according
to [10]), and s [9] is the probability of a successful clear
channel assessment after macMaxCSMABackoffs attempts.
A frame is transmitted a = aMaxFrameRetries+1 times be-
fore declaring a transmission failure. The probability of a
successful transmission (v) and the average number of trans-
mission attempts per frame (u) are
( )
1
1
1
k a
k
s s
k
v p p
=
=
=
, (7)
( ) ( )
1
1
1 1 .
k a
k
s s
k
u v a kp p
=
=
= +
(8)
Finally, coordinator power consumption can be modelled as

( )
( ) ( )
( )
max 1, 0
,
TXB B RXB B B RXBU
TXD RXA D DL
CAP RX
U
TXD RXA RXDD TXA NS
D NS
E n E n p E
P
BI
E E n n u
t P
I N
E E E E u E
I I
+ +
=
+ +
+ +
+ + +
+ +
(9)
where E
TXB
, E
RXB
, E
RXBU,
E
TXD
, E
TXA
, E
RXA
, and E
RXDD
are the
energy consumptions of a beacon transmission and reception,
an unsuccessful beacon reception, a data transmission, an
1
10
100
0 5 10 15 20
Beacon interval (s)
B
e
a
c
o
n

e
x
c
h
a
n
g
e

p
o
w
e
r

(
W
)

.

CC2420 (1 beacon, RSSI)
nRF24L01 (4 beacons)
nRF24L01 (1 beacon)

Figure 6: Beacon exchange power consumption as a function
of a beacon interval with one to four beacons.
acknowledge transmission and reception, and a data reception
after a data request, respectively. P
RX
is the coordinator power
consumption in reception mode. Moreover, the achieved
goodput (G) through a coordinator can be modeled with a
requested throughput and v as

( ) 2
.
D C D DL
S
U D
n n n n
G L v
I I
+ | | +
= +
|
\ .
(10)
Power consumptions and goodputs are separately analyzed
for three low power 2.4 GHz transceivers, presented in Table
2. Chipcon CC2400 and CC2420 transceivers have RSSI
mechanism, while Nordic Semiconductor nRF24L01 utilizes
the implemented path loss metering method. Since the
CC2400 transceiver has RSSI and high 1 Mbps data rate, high
energy efficiency is expected. All the transceivers have on-
chip data buffers for transmitted and received data, which
allows interfacing with low-speed microcontrollers. Data
buffer sizes are 32 B for nRF24L01 and CC2400 transceivers,
and 128 B for the CC2420 transceiver. The rest of the ana-
lyzed hardware is similar to the TUTWSN prototype plat-
form, presented in Figure 3.
Resulted coordinator power consumption as a function of
achieved goodput is plotted in Figure 7. Results are calculated
with 2.0 V supply voltage. According to the analysis,
CC2420, CC2400 and nRF24L01 transceivers can achieve
over 435 bits/s goodput with 2.25 mW, 1.45 mW, and 0.703
mW power consumptions, respectively. The beacon intervals
in these points are 1.97 s, 3.93 s and 3.93 s, respectively (not
shown in the figure). By increasing the number of beacons to
four, the nRF24L01 achieves the same goodput with 0.711
mW power. The results indicate that energy saving using the
lowest complexity transceiver is very considerable, and the
energy consumption of the path loss metering method is in-
significant. According to the analysis, the minimum power
consumption with the nRF24L01 transceiver is 0.316 mW,
which is achieved with 333 bits/s goodput and 15.7 s beacon
interval. At longer beacon intervals the loading of CAP in-
creases significantly, which increases collisions and re-
transmissions. This further increases CAP loading reducing
achieved goodput and increasing power consumption, as seen
with the nRF24L01 results. Also, the energy for network scan
is very significant at long beacon intervals.
IV. CONCLUSIONS

The implementation of a simple transmission power based
path loss metering method is presented. According to per-
formance measurements, the method can provide the func-
tionality of RSSI for the lowest complexity and power trans-
ceivers with very low power consumption. In the analyzed
large-scale LR-WPAN application, the path loss metering
consumes less than 0.5% of the entire node power consump-
tion. In addition, achieved power saving by using the
nRF24L01 transceiver and the path loss metering method is
69% compared to the CC2420 LR-WPAN compliant trans-
ceiver with RSSI. Compared to the CC2400 low power RSSI
equipped transceiver, the power saving is still over 51%.
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[10] Y.-C. Tseng, S.Y. Ni and E.Y. Shih. Adaptive approaches to relieving
broadcast storms in a wireless multihop mobile ad hoc network. IEEE
Transactions on Computers, 52(5): 545-557, May 2003.
Table 2: Comparison of analyzed transceivers.
Radio
data rate
[kbps] RSSI
sleep
[A]
RX
[mA]
TX
(0dBm)
[mA]
TX
(-10dBm)
[mA]
CC2400 1000 Yes 1.5 24 19 13
CC2420 250 Yes 0.02 18.8 17.4 11
nRF24L01 2000 No 0.9 12.3 11.3 7.5
0
1
2
3
4
0 100 200 300 400 500
Goodput (bits/s)
C
o
o
r
d
i
n
a
t
o
r

p
o
w
e
r

(
m
W
)
CC2420 (RSSI)
CC2400 (RSSI)
Requested throughput:
460 bits/s

Figure 7: LR-WPAN coordinator power consumption as a
function of achieved goodput.
PUBLICATION 3
M. Kohvakka, M. Kuorilehto, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, Network
Signaling Channel for Improving ZigBee Performance in Dynamic Cluster-Tree Net-
works, EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, vol. 8, no.
3, pp. 115, January 2008.
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking
Volume 2008, Article ID 456535, 15 pages
doi:10.1155/2008/456535
Research Article
Network Signaling Channel for Improving ZigBee Performance
in Dynamic Cluster-Tree Networks
Mikko Kohvakka, Jukka Suhonen, Mauri Kuorilehto, Marko H annik ainen, and D. H am al ainen
Institute of Digital and Computer Systems, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 553, Tampere 33101, Finland
Correspondence should be addressed to Mikko Kohvakka, mikko.kohvakka@tut.
Received 30 April 2007; Revised 26 October 2007; Accepted 19 January 2008
Recommended by Biao Chen
ZigBee is one of the most potential standardized technologies for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Yet, sucient energy-eciency
for the lowest power WSNs is achieved only in rather static networks. This severely limits the applicability of ZigBee in outdoor and
mobile applications, where operation environment is harsh and link failures are common. This paper proposes a network channel
beaconing (NCB) algorithm for improving ZigBee performance in dynamic cluster-tree networks. NCB reduces the energy con-
sumption of passive scans by dedicating one frequency channel for network beacon transmissions and by energy optimizing their
transmission rate. According to an energy analysis, the power consumption of network maintenance operations reduces by 70%
76% in dynamic networks. In static networks, energy overhead is negligible. Moreover, the service time for data routing increases
up to 37%. The performance of NCB is validated by ns-2 simulations. NCB can be implemented as an extension on MAC and
NWK layers and it is fully compatible with ZigBee.
Copyright 2008 Mikko Kohvakka et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
1. INTRODUCTION
Wireless sensor network (WSN) is an emerging technology
enabling fully autonomous self-conguring ad-hoc networks
[1]. WSN may consist of thousands of small nodes, which
sense their environment, communicate wirelessly with each
other, and share collaborative tasks. Nodes route sensed data
and events to a sink node, which forms a gateway to other
networks. WSN nodes may be embedded deeply in our liv-
ing environment or operate under harsh conditions in out-
doors or a machinery hall. Thus, a high tolerance against un-
reliable radio links, variable network size, and mobile nodes
is required [2, 3]. Due to the large number of nodes, bat-
tery replacements are dicult. Hence, nodes may have to
scavenge supply energy solely from their operation environ-
ment [4], or operate up to several years with small batteries.
This necessitates very high energy-eciency in communica-
tion protocols, algorithms, and hardware platforms. WSNs
have a vast number of potential applications [5], for example
monitoring and controlling in home, oce, and industrial
environments, monitoring of remote or hostile geograph-
ical regions, tracking of animals and objects, and surveil-
lance.
The wireless personal area networks (WPANs) working
group was initially focused on creating the IEEE 802.15.1
standard for physical (PHY) and medium access control
(MAC) layers based on Bluetooth technology [6]. The work-
ing group soon formed two other subgroups, rstly IEEE
802.15.3 focusing on high-speed WPAN [7] for multimedia
applications. In December 2000, IEEE 802.15.4 [8] low-rate
WPAN was initiated for providing low-complexity, low-cost,
and low-power wireless connectivity among inexpensive de-
vices, such as WSN nodes [9]. ZigBee [10] is an open spec-
ication for low-power wireless networking, which comple-
ments IEEE 802.15.4 with a network layer, security modes,
and application proles. The rst version of the ZigBee spec-
ication was announced in December 2004.
IEEE 802.15.4 together with ZigBee is one of the most
potential standardized technologies for enabling WSNs. As
available energy is scarce, the beacon-enabled network is es-
sential, since time synchronized sleep and wakeup mech-
anism can be adopted [11]. Moreover, large network size
with widely located nodes is enabled by a cluster-tree net-
work topology. By these settings, ZigBee can achieve very
high energy-eciency in static networks [12]. However,
even an immobile WSN has a dynamic behavior caused by
2 EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking
low-transmission power levels combined with dynamic oper-
ating environment, such as opened and closed doors, moving
objects, and interferences from other networks that all aect
radio frequency (RF) propagation. In addition, many envi-
sioned WSN applications, such as asset tracking and interac-
tive games, require mobility support for nodes. In these con-
ditions, ZigBee performance is unsatisfactory due to energy-
hungry passive scan operations. Hence, techniques for reduc-
ing passive scan energy are one of the key challenges.
In this paper, we propose a network channel beaconing
(NCB) algorithm for improving the performance and reduc-
ing the energy consumption of ZigBee in dynamic networks.
NCB utilizes frequent beacon transmissions on a dedicated
network signaling channel. Apassive scan is performed by re-
ceiving these beacons resulting in dramatically reduced pas-
sive scan duration and energy consumption in low-data-rate
applications. NCB can be implemented as a manufacturer
specic extension on MAC and NWK layers and it is fully
compatible with standard ZigBee devices.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. The re-
lated work is discussed in Section 2. An introduction to Zig-
Bee and IEEE 802.15.4 standard is presented in Section 3.
Section 4 presents the design of NCB. The performance of
NCB equipped ZigBee is analyzed and compared against
standard ZigBee in Section 5. In Section 6, the beacon trans-
mission rate of NCB is energy optimized for further energy
saving. Simulations for validating the results are presented in
Section 7. Finally, this paper is concluded in Section 8.
2. RELATEDWORK
Most of researches about the IEEE 802.15.4 beacon-enable
network have been restricted to a star topology. The perfor-
mance of a star network with 10 nodes has been analyzed in
[13]. The analysis focused on the eect of crystal tolerance, a
frame size, and the usage of guaranteed time slots (GTSs) on
a node lifetime. Bougard et al. [14] have presented a mathe-
matical analysis of a large-scale star network. A special con-
tribution is bit error rate measurements with two evaluation
boards connected through a set of calibrated attenuators. The
operational analysis considers mainly the eect of path loss
and packet size on energy consumption. The performance
simulations of IEEE 802.15.4 in a star network have been pre-
sented in [15]. It has been found that a signicant energy
saving is achieved by a low-duty-cycle operation.
An analysis and experimental measurements of IEEE
802.15.4 in a cluster-tree network has been presented in [11].
It has been found that beacon-enabled cluster-tree networks
are prone to beacon collisions, which will lead to synchro-
nization failures. The beacon collisions can be reduced by
utilizing a rather long beacon interval. Clearly, another op-
tion is to use more frequency channels for the network. Yet,
both of these options increase the energy consumption of
passive scans proprotionally.
Beacon collisions can also be reduced by scheduling. A
wakeup scheduling scheme presented in [16] utilizes syn-
chronized superframe timing such that coordinators begin
beaconing at the same time, and active periods are fully over-
lapping. Since entire inactive period can be used for sleep-
ing, energy consumption is reduced. To reduce collisions,
beacon transmission period is extended to contain a num-
ber of subslots during which beacons can be sent. Yet, the
selection of a noninterfering subslot has not been specied.
Another scheduling scheme presented in [17] organizes the
entire active periods of dierent coordinators in a nonover-
lapping manner. This minimizes the changes to the current
IEEE 802.15.4 specication. Scheduling has also been pro-
posed for reducing hidden node collisions that are typical
for the carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance
(CSMA-CA) mechanism of IEEE 802.15.4 [18].
While the above scheduling schemes utilize software-
based time synchronization; also hardware-based synchro-
nization mechanisms exist. RT-Link [19] is a time divi-
sion multiple access (TDMA) MAC protocol for multihop
WSNs. The protocol employs two out-of-band synchroniza-
tion sources: atomic clock broadcasts for outdoors and am-
plitude modulation (AM) transmissions for in indoor con-
ditions. The latter utilizes buildings power grid as an an-
tenna to radiate time sync pulses. According to experimen-
tal measurements, the hardware-based synchronization is ro-
bust, scalable, and energy-ecient option to software-based
techniques. Yet, the hardware cost and complexity are in-
creased.
In our previous work [12], we have analyzed the per-
formance of IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee in large-scale WSN
applications. An energy analysis on a cluster-tree multi-
hop network indicated that the highest energy-eciency in
a low-data-rate WSN application is achieved by moderate
(30.7 milliseconds) superframe duration and by scaling bea-
con interval according to requested throughput. According
to simulations, random error situations are energy-hungry,
since they usually cause the reconstruction of a complete
subtree. During the reconstruction, leaf nodes may need to
perform several passive scans until the above network hier-
archy is initialized. Simulations also depicted that the proba-
bility that two coordinators randomize the same slot for their
superframes is signicant. For better scalability, it would be
advantageous to divide clusters into several frequency chan-
nels.
Furthermore, our previous work [20] has proposed the
use of frequent beacon transmissions to improve the per-
formance of synchronized low-duty-cycle MAC protocols in
dynamic networks. The work focused on at networks, for
which energy optimized beacon rate was determined. It has
been found that optimized beacon rate results in a very sig-
nicant energy saving.
In this paper, we will extend our idea of frequent bea-
con transmissions to ZigBee. In contrast to [20], we will
utilize a cluster-tree network topology and a dedicated net-
work signaling channel for frequent network beacons. Net-
work beacons allow energy-ecient passive scans on the net-
work channel, independently fromthe utilized IEEE 802.15.4
beacon interval and the amount of frequency channels
for superframes. This enables the optimization of energy-
consumption and scalability in dynamic networks. As the
network beacons are transmitted on the network channel
only; collisions with data and control frames are eliminated.
We will also present performance analysis of the network
Mikko Kohvakka et al. 3
Application ZDO
SSP
Application support (APS)
NWK
MAC
868/915 MHz
PHY
2.4 GHz
PHY
IEEE 802.15.4
ZigBee alliance
dened
Figure 1: IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee.
channel approach. Performance models are validated by sim-
ulations.
3. ZigBee ANDIEEE 802.15.4 OVERVIEWS
3.1. ZigBee protocol stack
A ZigBee protocol stack is presented in Figure 1 [21]. An ap-
plication layer at the top of the stack determines node re-
lationships, and supervises network initiation and associa-
tion functions. Overall node management is performed by a
ZigBee device object (ZDO). Application endpoints may call
ZDO in order to discover other ZigBee nodes on the network
and the services they oer, and to dene security and net-
work settings. A security service provider (SSP) oers secu-
rity functions including encryption, key generation, key dis-
tribution, authentication, and access control lists.
A network (NWK) layer provides network self-organ-
ization and multihop routing capability. NWK performs
route discovery and maintenance, and message relaying
functions. NWK can initiate a new network and assign net-
work addresses to new nodes associating with the network
for the rst time.
An application support (APS) sublayer connects NWK,
SSP, and endpoints, and routes messages to dierent end-
points.
MAC and PHY layers are dened by IEEE 802.15.4. MAC
is responsible for the channel access mechanism, acknowl-
edged frame delivery, network association, and disassocia-
tion.
IEEE 802.15.4 supports two direct sequence spread spec-
trum (DSSS) PHY layers operating in industrial, scientic,
and medical(ISM) frequency bands. A low-band PHY oper-
ates in the 868 MHz or 915 MHz frequency band and has a
raw data-rate of 20 Kbps or 40 Kbps, respectively. A high-
band PHY operating in the 2.4 GHz band species a data-
rate of 250 kbps and has nearly worldwide availability. The
2.4 GHz frequency band is the most potential for large-scale
WSN applications, since the high-radio data-rate reduces
frame transmission time and usually also the energy per
transmitted and received bit.
3.2. Node types
IEEE 802.15.4 denes three types of logical devices, a per-
sonal area network (PAN) coordinator, a coordinator, and a
device. ZigBee denotes them as ZigBee coordinator, ZigBee
router, and ZigBee end-device, respectively. For clearness, we
utilize the naming of IEEE 802.15.4 from now on.
PAN coordinator is the primary controller of PAN, which
initiates the network and operates often as a gateway to other
networks. Each PAN must have exactly one PAN coordina-
tor. Coordinators collaborate with each other for executing
data routing and network self-organization operations. De-
vices do not have data routing capability and can communi-
cate only with coordinators.
Due to the low-performance requirements of devices,
they may be implemented with very simple and low-cost
hardware. The standard designates these low-complexity
nodes as reduced function devices (RFD). Nodes with the
complete set of MAC services are called as full function de-
vices (FFDs).
3.3. Network topologies
The standard supports two network topologies, star, and
peer-to-peer, presented in Figure 2. In the star topology, all
data exchanges are controlled by a PAN coordinator that op-
erates as a network master, while devices operate as slaves and
communicate only with the PAN coordinator. This single-
hop network is most suitable for delay critical applications,
where large network coverage is not required.
A peer-to-peer topology allows mesh type of networks,
where any coordinator may communicate with any other
coordinator within its range, and have messages multihop
routed to coordinators outside its range. This enables the
formation of complex self-organizing network topologies.
The network may contain also RFDs as devices. Peer-to-peer
topologies are suitable for industrial and commercial appli-
cations, where ecient self-congurability and large cover-
age are important. A disadvantage is the increased network
latency due to message relaying.
One special type of peer-to-peer topology is a cluster-tree
network, dened by ZigBee. The network consists of clusters,
each having a coordinator as a cluster head and multiple de-
vices as leaf nodes. A PAN coordinator initiates the network
and serves as the root. The network is formed by parent-child
relationships, where new nodes associate as children with the
existing coordinators. This well-dened structure simplies
multihop routing and allows eective energy saving; each
node maintains synchronization of data exchanges with its
parent coordinator only. The rest of time, nodes may save
energy in a sleep mode. This is not possible in the peer-to-
peer networks, where coordinators need to receive continu-
ously to be able to receive data from any node in the range.
A disadvantage is that a coordinator failure may cause a large
amount of orphaned child and grandchild nodes causing en-
ergy wasting during network reassociations [12].
3.4. MAC layer
The MAC layer can operate on both beacon-enabled and
nonbeacon modes. In the nonbeacon mode, a protocol is a
simple CSMA-CA. This requires a constant reception of pos-
sible incoming data. The power saving features that are criti-
cal in WSN applications are provided by the beacon-enabled
Star topology Peer-to-peer topology Cluster tree topology
ZigBee coordinator
FFD
RFD
Figure 2: Star, peer-to-peer, and cluster-tree topology examples.
mode. Hence, we concentrate on the beacon-enabled mode
from now on.
In the beacon-enabled mode, all communications are
performed in a superframe structure presented in Figure 3.
A superframe is bounded by periodically transmitted beacon
frames, which allows network nodes to synchronize them-
selves to the network. An active part of a superframe is di-
vided into three parts: the beacon, contention access period
(CAP), and contention-free period (CFP). At the end of the
superframe is an inactive period, when nodes may enter to a
power saving mode.
CAP is a mandatory part of a superframe during which
channel is accessed using a slotted CSMA-CA scheme. Coor-
dinators are required to listen to the channel the whole CAP
to detect and receive any data from their child nodes. The
child nodes may only transmit data and receive an optional
acknowledgement (ACK) on demand, which increases their
energy-eciency.
CFP is an optional part of a superframe. Nodes requir-
ing dedicated bandwidth and low-latency transmissions [22]
may request GTS from a PAN coordinator. CFP does not uti-
lize any collision avoidance mechanism. Due to inter-cluster
collisions, the applicability and benets of GTS are very lim-
ited in large peer-to-peer or cluster-tree networks. In addi-
tion, CFP can be utilized only for a direct communication
with a PAN coordinator.
The beacon interval (BI) and the active superframe dura-
tion (SD) are adjustable by IEEE 802.15.4 parameters beacon
order (BO) and superframe order (SO) as
BI = aBaseSuperframeDuration 2
BO
,
SD = aBaseSuperframeDuration 2
SO
,
(1)
where 0 SO BO 14, and aBaseSuperframeDuration
equals 960 radio symbols or 15.36 milliseconds in the
2.4 GHz band. Hence, BI and SD range between 15.36 mil-
liseconds and 251.7 seconds. The superframe structure is
maintained by a PAN coordinator. In cluster-tree networks,
all coordinators transmit beacons for assisting other nodes to
maintain synchronization with them.
For minimizing inter-cluster interferences, it is desirable
to concatenate superframes of neighboring clusters. ZigBee
species that BI is divided into BI/SD slots. During a start-
Beacon
CAP CFP Inactive
BI
SD
G
T
S
G
T
S
Figure 3: Superframe structure in beacon-enabled mode.
up, each coordinator randomizes a free slot for its super-
frame.
4. THE DESIGNOF NETWORK CHANNEL BEACONING
The designed algorithm should improve ZigBee energy-
eciency, throughput, and scalability in dynamic low-duty-
cycle cluster-tree networks, while the energy overhead in
static networks should be insignicant.
A starting point for the design is IEEE 802.15.4 cong-
ured to a beacon-enabled mode with inactive period. These
settings provide the highest energy-eciency in static net-
works. For maintaining the energy-eciency also in dynamic
networks, we focus on minimizing the energy consumption
caused by link failures.
4.1. Network scan in IEEE 802.15.4
A network scan over a given list of channels is initiated
by a MLME-SCAN.request primitive. The most important
parameters are ScanType, ScanChannels, and ScanDuration.
ScanType is used to select a suitable scan type among en-
ergy detection (ED) scan, active scan, passive scan, or orphan
scan. ScanChannels is a bitmap indicating which channels are
to be scanned. ScanDuration is used to calculate the length
of time to spend scanning each channel. ED scan is used to
determine channel usage, active or passive scan to locate bea-
con frames containing any PAN identier, or an orphan scan
to locate a PAN to which the device is currently associated.
Passive and orphan scans are mandatory requirements for all
devices. ED and active scans are optional for an RFD.
The ED scan is used by a prospective PAN coordinator
to select a suitable channel for a new PAN. The ED scan es-
timates the received signal power within the bandwidth of a
channel, while no attempt is made to identify or decode sig-
nal on the channels. Based on the detected energy, the chan-
nel with the lowest energy can be selected.
The active and passive scans allow a device to locating
any coordinator transmitting beacon frames within its per-
sonal operating space (POS). These scan types are used by a
prospective PAN coordinator to select a PAN identier prior
to starting a new PAN, or they could be used by a device for
selecting a suitable coordinator prior to association.
The active scan is performed by sending a beacon request
command and then by receiving for possible beacon frames
in return. Upon receiving the beacon request, each node in
Beacon
.
.
.
Beacon
Beacon
.
.
.
Beacon
Beacon
.
.
.
Beacon
PD-DATA.indication
.
.
.
PD-DATA.indication
PD-DATA.indication
.
.
.
PD-DATA.indication
.
.
.
PD-DATA.indication
.
.
.
PD-DATA.indication
Device PHY Device MAC
Device next
higher layer
MLME-SCAN.request
(passive)
Set 1st channel
ScanDuration
Set 2nd channel
ScanDuration
Set last channel
ScanDuration
MLME-SCAN.conrm
(success)
Figure 4: Passive scan message sequence chart of ZigBee.
a range transmits a beacon. This necessitates that each coor-
dinator is continuously in reception mode.
The passive scan is performed by receiving beacons
without transmitting any requests. This necessitates that
all coordinators transmit beacons at predetermined inter-
vals in some of the specied frequency channels. However,
coordinators are not required to be constantly in recep-
tion mode allowing the inactive time, which is crucial for
energy-eciency. The message sequence chart of the IEEE
802.15.4 passive scan is presented in Figure 4. For detect-
ing all coordinators in POS, passive scan should be con-
ducted on each selectable channel at least a beacon trans-
mission interval. In ZigBee, passive scan duration equals
BI + aBaseSuperframDuration.
The orphan scan allows a device to attempt to relocate
its coordinator following a loss of synchronization. The scan
is performed in each of specied set of channels by send-
ing an orphan notication command and then by receiv-
ing for a possible coordinator realignment command until a
macResponseWaitTime (491.2 milliseconds at 2.4 GHz band)
expires. The scan is terminated, if the realignment command
is received, or all the specied channels have been scanned.
The orphan scan is suitable for networks, where coordi-
nators are constantly in reception mode. In energy-ecient
networks utilizing the inactive period, coordinators are typ-
ically most of time in sleep mode, and the reception of the
orphan notication command cannot be guaranteed. Thus,
the orphan scan should be replaced by a MAC sublayer reset
followed by a passive scan, and a network reassociation, as
specied by IEEE 802.15.4.
As the focus of this paper is on networks where all nodes
utilize the inactive period, only ED scan and passive scan are
applicable. Since ED scan is utilized only at the startup of a
PAN coordinator, we can focus purely on the minimization
of passive scan energy consumption.
4.2. Minimization of passive scan energy
Passive scan energy consumption is a product of transceiver
power consumption in reception mode and passive scan du-
ration. Since it is dicult to aect the transceiver power char-
acteristics, we focus on minimizing the scanning time.
As found in [19], the energy consumption of a one
second long network (passive) scan equals the energy of
nearly 3000 beacon transmissions by a typical low-power
transceiver. One can easily conclude that it is worthwhile to
increase beacon transmissions rate by reducing BI. Yet, the
cost of a shorter BI is increased beacon reception energy due
to beacon synchronization. Due to time drift, the synchro-
nized reception of beacons is also more energy hungry than
the transmission of them.
For eliminating this drawback, the designed NCB algo-
rithm utilizes additional beacon transmissions on a dedi-
cated network signaling channel. These network beacons are
transmitted without collision avoidance independently from
the IEEE 802.15.4 specied beacons (standard beacons) and
received during passive scans only. Since the dedicated net-
work channel eliminates collisions with data transmissions,
the transmission rate of network beacons can be signicantly
higher than the rate of standard beacons. This eectively
minimizes the required passive scan duration reducing both
energy consumption and data routing breaks. Moreover, the
passive scan duration is independent from BI and the num-
ber of utilized channels for superframes, which is a major
improvement for the standard passive scan. Thus, the scala-
bility can be improved by increasing BI length and the num-
ber of utilized frequency channels, while maintaining rapid
and low-energy passive scans. As the 2.4 GHz and 915 MHz,
frequency bands have 16 and 10 selectable channels, respec-
tively, the use of a separate network signaling channel is fea-
sible.
In principle, the network beacons are used for search-
ing a suitable coordinator with which to associate. Then,
the association is performed on the cluster channel of a de-
sired coordinator, where standard beacon, data, and control
frames are exchanged. In practice, occasional collisions be-
tween beacons are possible. However, they do not interfere
with data and control frame exchanges, or the standard bea-
con synchronization. Assuming that the transmission inter-
val of network beacons is around two orders of magnitude
longer than a beacon length, the probability of collisions is
very low in sparse networks. In dense networks, we can as-
sume that adequate number of beacons can be received cor-
rectly even though some collisions occur.
Due to frequency selective channel fading, the link qual-
ity of the network and cluster channels may dier [23]. This
causes two consequences: all coordinators in the range of the
cluster channel are not detected, or the signal strength of a se-
lected coordinator is too low for communication, when op-
eration is switched to the cluster channel. However, we can
assume that an adequate number of network beacons can be
received during the passive scan for ensuring network con-
nectivity. According to the schedule and frequency channel
information of received network beacons, a node attempts
to receive the standard beacons, one after another, until
a suitable coordinator with adequate signal strength is found.
Standard beacons are received accurately at the specied mo-
ments minimizing the energy consumption of idle listening.
If the network beacons of two coordinators collide, colli-
sions are also probable with beacons transmitted later on, be-
cause beacons are sent periodically at constant intervals. To
prevent beacon collisions without the need of network bea-
con scheduling, we propose delaying network beacon trans-
mission by a random jitter (J), dened as
J =
0 J
MAX
t
TXB
, (2)
where [a, b] is a random function on the interval [a, b],
J
MAX
is the maximum jitter, and t
TXB
is the time required to
send a network beacon.
As presented in Figure 5, network beacons are broad-
casted by all coordinators during inactive periods. This is eas-
ily managed by a single radio transceiver. Normally, network
beacons are transmitted at rate f
N
. However, assuming one
radio per station, a coordinator may not send a network bea-
con, while maintaining an active period or communicating
with another coordinator. Then, the transmission of a bea-
con must be delayed until the end of the active period, caus-
ing at most 1/ f
N
+ SD interval between network beacons.
While it is possible to avoid delaying the transmission by
selecting suitable network beacon interval and active period
boundaries, the presented interval is considered as a practical
network scan time with NCB.
The algorithm operates similarly on PANs operating on
a single channel and PANs, where coordinators are divided
into several frequency channels. Additional information car-
ried in network beacons in respect to IEEE 802.15.4 bea-
cons are an exact time to the beginning of the next super-
frame, and the frequency channel of the coordinator. The
presented design does not have any eect on the standard
beacons transmitted at the beginning of superframes.
The message sequence chart of a passive scan utilizing
NCB is presented in Figure 6. As network beacons are trans-
mitted at rate f
N
, passive scan is performed by the MLME-
SCAN.request primitive by setting: ScanType = passive, Scan-
Channels = network channel, and ScanDuration = 1/ f
N
+SD.
If the network will be deployed in an environment having
high-RF interferences, some frequency channels may be lo-
cally jammed [23]. The robustness of network channel can be
improved by dening two network channels, where network
beacons are transmitted consecutively. Correspondingly, a
passive scan is conducted on the both channels. The network
channels should be selected before deployment according to
RF spectrum measurements. It should also be noted that it
is always possible to fall back into the standard passive scan.
However, in the rest of this paper we assume rather low-RF
interferences and utilize one network channel.
4.3. Implementation guidelines
The management functions of NCB algorithm should be im-
plemented on the NWK layer. In addition, IEEE 802.15.4
MAC should be modied by adding functionality for net-
work beacon transmissions. The format of network beacons
is a slight variation of an IEEE 802.15.4 beacon frame. We
suggest replacing the elds GTS elds and pending addresses
of the IEEE 802.15.4 beacon frame with time to next super-
frame and coordinator channel, as illustrated in Figure 7. For
adequate resolution, the space allocated for these elds are 4
B and 1 B, respectively. The initialization and transmissions
of network beacons are very similar to standard beacons.
For maintaining all the benets of standardized technol-
ogy, interoperability with standards is essential. In principle,
a ZigBee node should be able to nd a NCB equipped co-
ordinator by a passive scan and to associate with it and vice
versa.
We suggest adding a NCB specication eld in the pay-
load of standard beacons specifying the utilized network
channel, and the transmission rate of network beacons. The
NCB eld that can be utilized for determining is NCB sup-
ported in the PAN.
At a startup, a new PAN coordinator should perform ac-
tive/passive and an ED scans, as specied by IEEE 802.15.4.
According to the scans, free channels for the PAN and net-
work beacons are selected, and beacon transmissions are ini-
tiated.
At a startup, other nodes perform a passive scan and se-
lect a suitable PAN to associate with, as specied in IEEE
802.15.4. According to the NCB specication eld, nodes de-
termine the usage of network channel in PAN. If NCB is sup-
ported, network beacon transmissions are initiated. For al-
lowing compatibility with nodes lacking the NCB function-
ality, the standard specied passive scan should be performed
each time the NCB passive scan cannot nd suitable parents.
Since the NCB algorithm does not aect standard beacon
transmissions, the ordinary passive scan easily nds all nodes
resulting in cross-compatibility with ZigBee.
For the highest energy-eciency, it is important to en-
ergy to optimize network beacon rate according to the level
of network dynamics [19]. Asuccessful operation of NCB ne-
cessitates that the network beacon rate is uniform and glob-
ally known in entire network. It is possible to predetermine
the network beacon rate according to presumable network
dynamics in a given application. However, a more ecient
option is to adjust the network beacon rate dynamically. We
suggest that each node observes and maintains a record of
an average link lifetime. The maintained values are transmit-
ted to a PAN coordinator in data frames upon a request. It
is suggested that the PAN coordinator broadcasts the request
at regular intervals, for example once per hour. According to
the gathered link lifetimes, the PAN coordinator determines
an energy optimal network beacon rate for the PAN. The net-
work beacon rate is ooded through the network by utilizing
the NCB specication eld of standard beacons minimizing
a control frame overhead.
5. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
To be able to analyze purely the eect of NCB on the en-
ergy of network maintenance operations, we rst divide the
energy consumed by the wireless communication into three
classes [19]: node startup, network maintenance, and data
exchange energies, as illustrated in Figure 8. Node startup
Time
Time
Time
Time
Network channel reception
for network scan
A C A C
D B D B
F E F E
Network
channel
Channel 1
Channel 2
.
.
.
Channel N
BI
Superframe of
coordinator D
Superframe of
coordinator B
Superframe of
coordinator F
Superframe of
coordinator E
Network beacons of:
Coordinator A
Coordinator B
Coordinator C
Coordinator D
Coordinator E
Coordinator F
Figure 5: Principle of frequent network beacons.
Beacon
.
.
.
Beacon
PD-DATA.indication
.
.
.
PD-DATA.indication
Device PHY Device MAC
Device next
higher layer
MLME-SCAN.request
(passive)
Set network channel
ScanDuration
= 1/ f
N
+ SD
MLME-SCAN.conrm
(success)
Figure 6: Passive scan message sequence chart of NCB equipped ZigBee.
energy is composed of a passive scan for detecting coordi-
nators in a range, and a network association for connecting
the node to the network. The network association consists
of control packet exchange according to the IEEE 802.15.4
specication. Network maintenance and data exchange oper-
ations are executed after the startup period. Network main-
tenance energy consists of beacon transmissions and recep-
tion, passive scans, and network reassociations according to
occurred link failures. Data exchange energy is consumed
by upper-layer payload data and acknowledgement transmis-
sions and receptions. We dene that network beacon trans-
missions have lower priority than data exchanges. Hence,
network beacon broadcasts do not aect data exchange en-
ergy. From now on, we can focus on the minimization of
network maintenance energy.
Next, the performance analysis of NCB algorithm in a
WSN application will be presented. The analysis begins by
an energy analysis of a reference hardware platform, and pro-
ceeds to network maintenance power analysis through MAC
operation models.
5.1. Hardware platform
To obtain realistic results, steady-state power consump-
tions of a commercial IEEE 802.15.4 compliant Chip-
con CC2420EM/EB [24] transceiver evaluation board are
measured. In addition, the power consumption of a
PIC18LF8722 [25] microcontroller is measured to estimate
the energy consumption of a low-power MAC protocol
processor. The measured power consumptions of the plat-
form in dierent operation modes are presented in Table 1.
Highest power of 56.5 mW is consumed in reception mode
(P
RX
). In transmission mode, power consumption varies
from 26.6 mW to 48.0 mW. We dene that frames are al-
ways transmitted with the highest transmission power level
resulting in 48.0 mW transmission power (P
TX
). Sleep more
power consumption is 30 W. Table 2 presents the measured
transient times as the transceiver switches from sleep to idle
mode and from idle to active (RX or TX) mode. The tran-
sient times from active to idle and from idle to sleep mode
are negligible.
MAC
MAC
header
Superframe
specication
Time to next
superframe
Coordinator
channel
Payload
MAC
footer
PHY
Synch.
header
PHY
header
MAC protocol data unit (MPDU)
Figure 7: Suggested format of an NCB network beacon frame.
Start-up period
Node lifetime
S
t
a
r
t
-
u
p
e
n
e
r
g
y
:
(
i
)
P
a
s
s
i
v
e
s
c
a
n
(
i
i
)
N
e
t
w
o
r
k
a
s
s
o
c
i
a
t
i
o
n
Data exchange energy:
(i) Upper layer payload data and
acknowledgement exchange
Network maintenance energy:
(i) Beacon transmissions and receptions
(ii) Passive scans and network re-associations
after link failures
Time
Figure 8: Node energy consumption classication.
Table 1: Measured static platform power consumptions at 3 V sup-
ply voltage.
Symbol MCU mode Radio mode Power consumption
P
TX
Active TX (0 dBm) 48.0 mW
P
RX
Active RX 56.5 mW
P
I
Active Idle 2.79 mW
P
S
Sleep Sleep 30 W
Table 2: Measured chipcon CC2420 transient times.
Symbol Description Time (s)
t
ST
Sleep to idle 970
t
IA
Idle to active 192
5.2. Network conguration
We analyze the energy-eciency of NCB in a cluster-tree net-
work, where each cluster contains n
D
(11) devices and n
C
(2)
child coordinators. Network depth (d) is 4 levels of hierarchy.
Coordinators broadcast standard beacons once per BI result-
ing a standard beacon rate f
C
= 1/BI, where BI gets values
between 0.246 second and 15.7 seconds. Network beacon rate
f
N
is varied from 0.1 Hz to 100 Hz. The network operates on
n
CH
channels. The utilized parameters and their values are
presented in Table 3.
5.3. MAC operation models
To be able to analyze the network maintenance energy, MAC
operation models are dened for a beacon transmission, a
beacon reception, and a passive scan.
A beacon frame transmission consists of a sleep-to-idle
(t
SI
) transient, idle-to-active (t
IA
) transient, and actual data
transmission dened as the ratio of beacon frame length (L
B
)
and radio data-rate (R). No CCA analysis is needed for a bea-
con frame. During the sleep-to-idle transient, radio power
consumption equals P
I
, after which power consumption rises
to P
TX
. The beacon transmission energy (E
TXB
) is
E
TXB
= t
SI
P
I
+ (t
IA
+ L
B
/R)P
TX
. (3)
The resulting energy consumption per transmitted frame
is E
TXB
= 39.6 J, which equals 190 nJ per a PHY layer data
bit.
A beacon reception begins with radio startup transients.
The radio is in reception mode until a beacon frame has been
received including a time margin required due to synchro-
nization inaccuracy (t
I
), and the time drift between a trans-
mitting and a receiving node. As synchronization is obtained
by standard beacon receptions; the time drift caused by crys-
tal tolerance () is directly proportional to BI. The beacon
reception energy (E
RXB
) is
E
RXB
= t
SI
P
I
+ (t
IA
+ 2BI + t
I
+ L
B
/R)P
RX
. (4)
The resulting energy consumption per received frame is
E
RXB
= 70.2 J (BI = 0.96 second). This equals 338 nJ per a
PHY layer data bit.
A passive scan begins with the startup transients. Then, a
radio is in RX mode during passive scan duration (t
NS
). The
energy required for message exchanges during a reassociation
is negligible compared to the energy of the passive scan, and
thus it is ignored in the following analysis. Thus, the passive
scan energy (E
NS
) is
E
NS
= t
SI
P
I
+ (t
IA
+ t
NS
)P
RX
. (5)
The passive scan duration depends on the utilization of
NCB. For ZigBee, the durationis a function of the number of
scanned cluster channels and a beacon order as
t
NS
= n
CH
aBaseSuperframeDuration (2
BO
+ 1). (6)
As dened above, practical network scan duration for
NCB equipped ZigBee is
t
NS
= 1/ f
N
+ SD. (7)
Table 3: Utilized parameters and their values.
Symbol Parameter Value
f
C
Standard beacon rate 63.8 mHz16.4 Hz
f
N
Network beacon rate 0.1 Hz100 Hz
L
B
Beacon frame length 26 B
n
D
Number of devices associated with each coordinator 12
n
C
Number of child-coordinators associated with each coordinator 3
n
CH
Number of cluster channels 1 or 10
R Radio data-rate 250 Kbps
r Radio range 20 m
t
I
Synchronization inaccuracy 0.10 ms
v Node mobility 0.0110 m/s
The crystal tolerance 20 ppm
5.4. Network maintenance power analysis
Network maintenance operations are performed continu-
ously during entire network lifetime. Hence, it is most con-
venient to consider a long-time energy consumption divided
by the elapsed time resulting in average power consumption.
Average network maintenance power P
M
is dened as a sum
of passive scan power P
NS
and beacon exchange power P
B
.
The interval of passive scans depends on the average link
lifetime (t
LF
). In should be noted that a link failure some-
where along the routing path between a given node and a
sink may cause a passive scan and network reassociation. For
simplicity, we omit these link failures in this analysis, and the
interval between passive scans equals a link lifetime. We also
omit occasional frame errors, and determine link lifetime ac-
cording to node mobility. Assuming a random mobility for
all nodes, average link lifetime can be approximated by a ra-
dio range (r) and node mobility (v) as
t
LF
= r/v. (8)
The resulted link lifetime as a function of node mobility
is plotted in Figure 9. As mobility increases, node quickly
moves out of the communication range of its coordinator,
and the lifetime of a link drops rapidly. According to the link
lifetime, the average power consumption of network scans
(P
NS
) is obtained as
P
NS
= E
NS
/t
LF
. (9)
We determine average beacon exchange power according
to beacon transmission and reception energies. All nodes re-
ceive beacons, but they are transmitted by coordinators only.
In standard ZigBee, beacons are transmitted and received
from a parent at rate f
C
. As beacon exchange power is av-
eraged over all the nodes of a cluster; beacon exchange power
consumption (P
B
) for ZigBee is
P
B
=
f
C
n
D
+ 1
E
TXB
+ f
C
E
RXB
. (10)
When NCB is utilized, beacon transmissions are in-
creased. Besides the standard beacons, each coordinator
0.01 0.1 1 10
Mobility (m/s)
1
10
100
1000
10000
L
i
n
k
l
i
f
e
t
i
m
e
(
s
)
Figure 9: The eect of mobility to link lifetime in the simulated
scenario.
transmits network beacons on the network channel at rate
f
N
. For NCB equipped ZigBee, average beacon exchange
power consumption is
P
B
=
f
N
+ f
C
n
D
+ 1
E
TXB
+ f
C
E
RXB
. (11)
5.5. Energy analysis results
The network maintenance powers are compared between
standard ZigBee and NCB equipped ZigBee. BI and v are
xed to 3.96 seconds and 0.01 m/s, respectively. As the net-
work operation is divided into 1 and 10 channels, the main-
tenance power of the standard ZigBee equals 132 W, and
1.13 mW, respectively, as presented in Figure 10. When NCB
is used, the network maintenance power P
M
(the sum of P
B
and P
N
) has a minimum of 42 W at 2.6 Hz network bea-
con rate. At low-beacon rates below 1 Hz, P
M
typically dou-
bles as the beacon rate halves and the power consumption are
dominated by the passive scan power. The eect is reversed
at high-beacon rates above 10 Hz, when the beacon transmis-
sions dominate the power consumption. At the energy opti-
mum 2.6 Hz network beacon rate, NCB algorithm reduces
the network maintenance power up to 96%. Yet, the BI may
also be energy optimized reducing the network maintenance
power of standard ZigBee.
For nding an energy optimal value for BI, the network
maintenance power of ZigBee is analyzed as the function
of BI. From now on, the number of channels is xed to 1.
0.1 1 10 100
f
N
(Hz)
0
1
10
100
1000
1000
P
M
(
W
)
Beacon exchange power (NCB)
Network scanning power (NCB)
Network maintenance power (NCB)
Network maintenance power (ZigBee, 1 channel)
Network maintenance power (ZigBee, 10 channels)
Figure 10: Average beacon exchange, passive scan, and network
maintenance power consumptions as the function of network bea-
con transmission rate.
Average node mobility gets values 0.01 m/s, 0.1 m/s, and
1 m/s, ranging from a nearly static network to a quite
dynamic network, respectively. The results are presented
in Figure 11. At shorter values of BI, network mainte-
nance power is dominated by beacon exchange power con-
sumption. At longer BI values, passive scans dominate the
power consumption. An energy optimal BI depends on
the node mobility. The energy optimal values of BI at
0.01 m/s, 0.1 m/s, and 1 m/s mobility levels are 1.97 second,
0.49 second, and 0.12 second, respectively. The resulted min-
imum network maintenance power consumptions at these
points are 94 W, 288 W, and 936 W, respectively.
Next, the network maintenance power of NCB equipped
ZigBee is analyzed as the function of network beacon trans-
mission rate. Node mobility gets values 0.01 m/s and 1 m/s,
and BI is varied from 0.246 second to 15.7 seconds. The re-
sults are presented in Figure 12. In contrast to ZigBee, the
network maintenance power is minimized by maximizing BI.
This is logical, since passive scans are performed by receiving
network beacons independently of the transmission rate of
standard beacons. Hence, the increase of BI reduces beacon
transmission and reception power consumption. The min-
imum network maintenance power is achieved by optimiz-
ing network beacon transmission rate. At 0.01 m/s and 1 m/s
node mobility levels, energy optimal network beacon rates
are 2.6 Hz and 28 Hz, respectively. Achieved network main-
tenance power consumptions at these points are 28.1 Wand
220 W, respectively, as BI = 15.7 seconds. Compared to Zig-
Bee at these link lifetimes, NCB equipped ZigBee achieves
70%76% lower-network maintenance power. The results
also indicate that NCB algorithm operates most eciently in
dynamic networks, and an energy optimal network beacon
rate depends signicantly on a link lifetime. A shorter link
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
BI (s)
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
P
M
(
m
W
)
Mobility: 1 m/s
Mobility: 0.1 m/s
Mobility: 0.01 m/s
Figure 11: Average network maintenance power of ZigBee as the
function of BI, while node mobility varies.
0.1 1 10 100
f
N
(Hz)
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
P
M
(
m
W
)
v = 1 m/s, BI = 0.246 s
v = 1 m/s, BI = 0.983 s
v = 1 m/s, BI = 3.93 s
v = 1 m/s, BI = 15.7 s
v = 0.01 m/s, BI = 0.246 s
v = 0.01 m/s, BI = 0.983 s
v = 0.01 m/s, BI = 3.93 s
v = 0.01 m/s, BI = 15.7 s
Figure 12: Average network maintenance power of NCB equipped
ZigBee as the function of network beacon rate, as BI, and node mo-
bility varies.
lifetime increases passive scan power consumption and thus,
shifts the P
M
minimum to higher-network beacon rates. Ac-
cording to [12], the typical power consumption of a ZigBee
node in a static low-data-rate network is below1 mW. Hence,
network maintenance power has a very signicant eect on
entire network lifetime and the optimization of network bea-
con rate is very important.
6. NETWORK BEACONRATE OPTIMIZATION
An optimal network beacon rate ( f
N
) is determined by min-
imizing the network maintenance power with respect to the
0.01 0.1 1 10
Node mobility (m/s)
0.1
1
10
100
f
N
(
H
z
)
n
D
= 16
n
D
= 8
n
D
= 4
n
D
= 2
n
D
= 0
Figure 13: Network maintenance power of NCB equipped ZigBee
at f
N
as the function of node mobility, and comparison with stan-
dard ZigBee.
network beacon rate. An optimization function can be writ-
ten as
P
m
=
f
N
+ f
C
n
D
+ 1
E
TXB
+ f
C
E
RXB
+
t
SI
P
I
+ (t
IA
+ 1/ f
N
+ SD)P
RX
r
v.
(12)
It can be shown that there exists a unique minimum at f
N
that is obtained by setting dP
m
/df
N
= 0 in (12). This yields
f
N
=
P
RX
v(n
D
+ 1)
E
TXB
r
. (13)
The optimal network beacon rate is determined by radio
parameters E
TXB
, P
RX
, and r, and network parameters n
D
and
v.
The eect of a link lifetime and a cluster size on the opti-
mal network beacon rate is presented in Figure 13. The opti-
mal rate is nearly directly proportional to node mobility. As
the number of devices per cluster (n
D
) increases from0 to 16,
the energy optimal network beacon rate increases 312%. Al-
though, a higher-network beacon rate increases P
B
in coor-
dinators, overall network maintenance power consumption
is reduced due to shorter passive scans.
The network maintenance powers of ZigBee and NCB
equipped ZigBee are compared as the function of node mo-
bility. In the comparison, BI varies from 0.246 second to
15.7 seconds, and NCB is operating at the energy optimal
network beacon rate. The results are presented in Figure 14.
In static networks with very low mobility, obtained network
maintenance powers are nearly the same. Hence, the energy
overhead of NCB is small. The energy saving of NCB com-
pared to standard ZigBee increases rapidly with higher-node
mobility. At 1 m/s node mobility, achieved energy saving us-
ing NCB is from 44% to 99.5%.
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10
Node mobility (m/s)
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
P
M
(
m
W
)
Standard, BI = 15.7 s
NCB, BI = 15.7 s
NCB, BI = 3.93 s
NCB, BI = 0.983 s
NCB, BI = 0.246 s
Figure 14: Energy optimal network beacon rate as the function of
node mobility, and as the number of devices per a cluster varies.
Finally, we analyze the eect of NCB on a service time,
during which a node is connected to a network and capa-
ble for routing data. We consider a time period equaling to
t
LF.
The active operation time between passive scans equals
t
LF
reduced by the durations of a passive scan (t
NS
) and net-
work association (t
A
) operations. After a passive scan, a node
selects a suitable parent and waits for the beginning of par-
ents next superframe requiring on average a half BI. Then,
the node transmits an association request and waits for a re-
sponse to the next superframe. Hence, on average t
A
= 1.5BI.
The service time (S) is determined as the percentual duration
of active operation time in proportion to the entire period as
S =
I
NS
t
NS
t
A
t
LF
. (14)
The resulted service time as the function of a link lifetime
is plotted in Figure 15. Due to the time required for associa-
tion, the service time depends signicantly on BI. However,
NCB algorithm improves the service time of ZigBee up to
37%. The improvement is the most signicant at node mo-
bility levels above 0.1 m/s.
7. SIMULATIONS
The performance of the network channel beaconing was
compared against standard ZigBee using ns-2 simulation tool
(version 2.31) [26]. Next, the NCB implementation for ns-2
and obtained performance results are discussed.
7.1. Implementation
For enabling simulations in ZigBee network, few modica-
tions for the IEEE 802.15.4 implementation provided by ns-2
were made. First, the code was modied to support a cluster-
tree topology with inactive time and to performsynchroniza-
tion to the coordinator prior to each association attempt.
0.01 0.1 1 10
Node mobility (m/s)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
S
e
r
v
i
c
e
t
i
m
e
(
%
)
NCB, BI = 0.246 s
NCB, BI = 0.983 s
NCB, BI = 3.93 s
NCB, BI = 15.7 s
Figure 15: Service time versus node mobility at f
N
and compari-
son with ZigBee.
Otherwise, the synchronization procedure would have in-
cluded a long-term idle listening. Second, a beacon schedul-
ing was implemented, as required by the ZigBee. Because the
standard does not specify the exact method to determine the
beacon schedules, a custom algorithm was used. The algo-
rithm utilizes precalculated beacon transmission times to en-
sure unique time slots for each coordinator within an inter-
ference range. It should be noted that while end-to-end delay
varies in dierent schedules, the energy, throughput, and re-
liability results are the same, assuming that a nonconicting
schedule is found.
Moreover, the simplest version of ZigBee routing was im-
plemented by omitting the optional routing tables and route
discovery procedure. Instead, the packets were routed along
the formed cluster tree. While the route discovery procedure
allows communication between two arbitrary nodes in the
network, it causes high-initial delay, since a node must com-
municate with its destination. Therefore, the route discov-
ery is impractical for networks having high degree of mobil-
ity.
For NCB, the NWK layer was modied to issue the pas-
sive scan command with the network channel instead of the
usual channel range. The received network beacon frames
were distinguished from other frames by a unique frame
type value. The received beacons were handled similarly to
the standard beacons, expect for the time of next super-
frame which was calculated with time to next superframe
eld. Each station was precongured with network channel
and network beacon interval, thus the beacon interval was
the same during a simulation run. Coordinator transmitted
network beacons periodically by briey switching to the net-
work channel. For these simulations, network beacon trans-
mission jitter J
MAX
was set to the value of eight, which was
found to reduce collisions adequately.
20 m
PAN coordinator
Coordinator
Mobile device
Movement path
Communication range
Figure 16: Simulated network topology. Coordinators are located
on a grid around a PANcoordinator, while devices move around the
grid.
The simulated scenario consisted of 36 stationary coordi-
nators and 8 mobile devices. The coordinators were formed
on a grid around a PAN coordinator, while mobile devices
moved along a circle having a radius of 45 m, as illustrated in
Figure 16. Each coordinator was within the communication
range of its adjacent nodes. That is, the coordinators in the
center had four neighbors. Maximum hop count (network
depth) to the PAN coordinator was six. The simulation uti-
lized a two-ray ground propagation model allowing commu-
nication range of 20 m. This was enough for reliable commu-
nication between immediate neighbors, but prevented inter-
ference from other nodes. To simulate normal network oper-
ation, each mobile device transmitted 40 B packets periodi-
cally to the PANcoordinator with 30 s as a period. Simulation
time was one hour.
IEEE 802.15.4 was simulated without CFP and battery
life extension options. During CAP, channel access mode
was slotted CSMA-CA. For evaluating power consumption,
the measured power consumption and transient times of
Chipcon CC2420 were used, as presented in Tables 2 and 3.
Frames were always sent with the highest transmission power
level (0 dBm).
7.2. Simulation results
The simulations produced power consumption and service
time results for each node in the network. The obtained re-
sults are averaged among all nodes of the same type resulting
in average node behavior. It should be noted that the power
consumption results include also the power consumptions of
a startup and all data exchanges. Thus, the presented power
consumptions are higher than that in the analysis.
We present rst the simulated service time as the func-
tion of node mobility. The results are presented in Figure 17.
In the results, the maximum relative error with 95% con-
dence is 7%. The service time depends heavily on the bea-
con interval, as long interval increases association delays. Be-
cause shorter network scan time allows faster neighbor dis-
covery and thus, minimizes the time in which a node is not
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Node mobility (m/s)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
S
e
r
v
i
c
e
t
i
m
e
(
%
)
NCB, BI = 0.984 s, f
N
= 0.2 s
NCB, BI = 0.984 s, f
N
= 0.4 s
NCB, BI = 3.93 s, f
N
= 0.2 s
NCB, BI = 3.93 s, f
N
= 0.4 s
Figure 17: Simulated service time of a mobile device (SO = 1).
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Node mobility (m/s)
0.01
0.1
1
10
E
n
d
d
e
v
i
c
e
p
o
w
e
r
(
m
W
)
NCB, BI = 0.984 s, f
N
= 0.2 s
NCB, BI = 0.984 s, f
N
= 0.4 s
Standard, B I = 3.93 s
NCB, BI = 3.93 s, f
N
= 0.2 s
NCB, BI = 3.93 s, f
N
= 0.4 s
Figure 18: Simulated power consumption of mobile devices (SO=
1).
connected to the network, NCB increases service time up to
14%. The simulations results slightly lower service time than
the analysis. This is mostly caused by occasional unsuccessful
associations.
Power usage of a mobile device is presented in Figure 18.
In the results, the maximum relative error with 95% con-
dence is 12%. When a device is stationary, only an initial net-
work scan is performed. As the normal operation is identical
between standard ZigBee and NCB, the dierence on energy
usage is minimal. When mobility increases, links break often
and more network scans are required. Then, NCB performs
signicantly better than standard due to its short network
scan time.
0 2 4 6 8
Beacon interval (s)
0.01
0.1
1
10
C
o
o
r
d
i
n
a
t
o
r
p
o
w
e
r
(
m
W
)
Standard, SO = 1
NCB, f
N
= 0.2 s, SO = 1
NCB, f
N
= 0.4 s, SO = 1
Standard, SO = 2
NCB, f
N
= 0.2 s, SO = 2
NCB, f
N
= 0.4 s, SO = 2
Figure 19: Simulated coordinator power consumption.
On low mobility and at 3.93 seconds beacon interval,
NCB has order of magnitude lower power consumption than
the standard. Yet, the power consumption increases signi-
cantly between 0.6 m/s and 0.8 m/s due to increased failures
during synchronization. As beacon interval is long, a device
may try to synchronize to a neighbor that has already moved
outside its communication range. The device tries to track
beacons and enables its radio for several beacon intervals be-
fore failing. Thus, after 0.6 m/s, NCB results are nearly the
same with the standard. At shorter, at 0.98 second beacon in-
terval, the same eect occurs after 2.5 m/s mobility.
Figure 19 shows the average power usage on a station-
ary ZigBee coordinator. The increased power requirement of
NCB is only 2%4% higher. This is expected, as network
beacons are short and do not require CSMA-CA mecha-
nism. Thus, the transceiver receptions dominate the power
consumption. This is evident in Figure 19, as the super-
frame length (beacon order) has the most profound eect on
power.
Generally, the simulations show higher-power consump-
tion than the analysis. The reason is that simulations in-
cluded also power consumption due to data exchange, while
analysis focused on the network maintenance power only.
However, the results and ndings are comparable and prove
the energy-eciency of proposed network channel beacons.
8. CONCLUSIONS
The design and performance analyses of the NCB algorithm
for ZigBee are presented. A dedicated frequency channel for
frequent network beacons reduces the energy consumption
of IEEE 802.15.4 passive scans. Energy-eciency is further
improved by optimizing the network beacon transmission
rate according to observed link lifetimes.
According to the energy analysis, NCB algorithm reduces
the network maintenance power of ZigBee in dynamic net-
works 70%76%. This equals even milliwatts absolute power
saving using low-power hardware platforms. As coordinator
power consumption in a static network and a low- data-rate
application is typically below 1 mW [12], achieved power
saving is dramatic. In addition, the NCB algorithm improves
network performance by increasing the service time for data
routing up to 37%. Simulations validate the energy-eciency
of NCB, although the energy saving is slightly lower than in
the analysis.
As the NCB algorithm minimizes passive scan energy re-
gardless the number of utilized PAN channels, the division
of clusters into several frequency channels becomes feasible
and energy-ecient. This would improve ZigBee scalabil-
ity and performance especially in dense and large WSNs by
even eliminating inter-cluster interferences. It should be also
noted that the network beacons provide an ecient way to
signal network maintenance, neighborhood, and routing in-
formation for additional algorithms and protocols. NCB can
be implemented as an extension on MAC and NWK layers,
and it is fully compatible with ZigBee.
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PUBLICATION 4
M. Kohvakka, J. Suhonen, M. Kuorilehto, V. Kaseva, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. H-
mlinen, Energy-Efcient Neighbor Discovery Protocol for Mobile Wireless Sen-
sor Networks, Ad Hoc Networks, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 2441, January 2009.
2007 Elsevier B.V. Reprinted with Permission.
Energy-ecient neighbor discovery protocol for
mobile wireless sensor networks
Mikko Kohvakka
*
, Jukka Suhonen, Mauri Kuorilehto, Ville Kaseva,
Marko Hannikainen, Timo D. Hamalainen
Tampere University of Technology, Institute of Digital and Computer Systems, FI-33720 Tampere, Finland
Received 14 November 2006; received in revised form 2 November 2007; accepted 27 November 2007
Available online 15 December 2007
Abstract
Low energy consumption is a critical design requirement for most wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. Due to
minimal transmission power levels, time-varying environmental factors and mobility of nodes, network neighborhood
changes frequently. In these conditions, the most critical issue for energy is to minimize the transactions and time con-
sumed for neighbor discovery operations. In this paper, we present an energy-ecient neighbor discovery protocol targeted
at synchronized low duty-cycle medium access control (MAC) schemes such as IEEE 802.15.4 and S-MAC. The protocol
eectively reduces the need for costly network scans by proactively distributing node schedule information in MAC pro-
tocol beacons and by using this information for establishing new communication links. Energy consumption is further
reduced by optimizing the beacon transmission rate. The protocol is validated by performance analysis and experimental
measurements with physical WSN prototypes. Experimental results show that the protocol can reduce node energy
consumption up to 80% at 13 m/s node mobility.
2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Algorithm/protocol design and analysis; Low power design; Mobile computing; Wireless sensor networks
1. Introduction
Wireless sensor network (WSN) is the most
potential technology for very low power ubiquitous
networks. Foreseen applications elds include mon-
itoring of remote or hostile geographical regions,
tracking of animals and objects, and monitoring in
smart building and industries [1,2]. WSN may con-
sist of even thousands of small and fully autono-
mous nodes, which gather sensor information,
perform data processing, and communicate with
each other. Nodes route data by multiple low-
energy hops to sink nodes, which may act as gate-
ways to other networks. Network management is
fully decentralized eliminating the need for a xed
controller and infrastructure, which prevents a
single point of failure.
1570-8705/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.adhoc.2007.11.016
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +358 3 3115 4702; fax: +358 3
3115 4786.
E-mail addresses: mikko.kohvakka@tut. (M. Kohvakka),
jukka.suhonen@tut. (J. Suhonen), mauri.kuorilehto@tut. (M.
Kuorilehto), ville.a.kaseva@tut. (V. Kaseva), marko.hannikai-
nen@tut. (M. Hannikainen), timo.d.hamalainen@tut. (T.D.
Hamalainen).
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
Ad Hoc Networks 7 (2009) 2441
www.elsevier.com/locate/adhoc
In most of these envisioned applications, nodes
must operate with a scarce energy budget. They
may have to scavenge supply energy solely from
their operation environment, or operate up to sev-
eral years with small batteries [3]. Hence, the energy
consumption is one of the key performance metrics
for WSN realizations.
To reach the energy budget, WSN nodes operate
with constrained communication and computation
resources. Thus, a typical node performs data pro-
cessing using a MicroController Unit (MCU) hav-
ing a couple of million instructions per second
(MIPS) processing speed and tens of kbytes pro-
gram and data memories [4,5].
Although the advances in radio frequency (RF)
circuits have been signicant, a radio transceiver is
still the most power-consuming component in a
WSN node. The power consumption of current
radios is nearly the same in transmission and recep-
tion modes, and energy is saved only in a sleep
mode, in which the radio circuitry is completely
switched o. The nodes should come out of the sleep
mode only to transmit or receive packets that are
vital for node operation, thus avoiding idle listening
of unnecessary trac [6]. Therefore, a desired pair
of nodes should be active simultaneously. As a glo-
bal synchronization is very dicult to reach in large
networks using low power and low cost components
[7], nodes may reduce idle listening and energy con-
sumption by forming locally synchronized commu-
nication links with their neighbors.
WSNs are often considered stationary in a way
that the established communication links are unal-
tered for entire network lifetime. In practice, even
an immobile network has a dynamic behavior [8,9]
due to random node failures and dynamic operating
environment caused by opened and closed doors,
moving objects, changing weather conditions, and
interferences from other networks, which all aect
RF propagation. In addition, numerous envisioned
WSN applications, such as access control, assets
tracking, and interactive games necessitate the
mobility of nodes causing dynamics for network
topology [6,10]. Thus, WSN nodes should be able
to recognize topology changes and update commu-
nication links rapidly, energy-eciently, and with
minimum interruptions on application data routing.
In current WSN proposals, new neighbors are typi-
cally discovered by listening on available RF chan-
nels for their transmissions (network scan), lasting
up to tens of seconds [1113]. As calculated in
[14], each second of a network scan consumes the
energy equaling to 2800 frame transmissions using
a typical low power transceiver. In dynamic net-
works, scans may increase node energy consump-
tion one order of magnitude [14]. Thus, we need
an energy-ecient neighbor discovery to substitute
for network scans.
In this paper, we present a new energy-ecient
neighbor discovery protocol (ENDP) for synchro-
nized low duty-cycle medium access control (MAC)
schemes. The presented protocol reduces the need
for network scans by distributing synchronization
information from nodes in two-hop neighborhood.
This information is carried in the beacon payloads
of underlying MAC protocol and utilized for estab-
lishing new communication links. In addition,
ENDP introduces an ecient network beacon sig-
naling scheme to make network scans more energy-
ecient. To the best of our knowledge, ENDP is
the rst protocol that can eectively minimize net-
work energy consumption in dynamic WSNs. The
energy eciency and operation delity are veried
by analytical performance models and experimental
measurements using real WSN prototypes.
This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 pre-
sents design approaches for low duty-cycle MAC
protocols and discusses how neighbor discovery is
currently performed. The design of ENDP is pre-
sented in Section 3. For obtaining realistic results,
we introduce a WSN prototype platform and deter-
mine its radio energy models in Section 4. Accord-
ing to the energy models, the performance of
ENDP is determined analytically and optimized in
Section 5. Section 6 presents experimental measure-
ments by the prototypes. The paper is concluded in
Section 7.
2. Related research
2.1. Low duty-cycle MACs
The MAC sublayer operating on top of a physi-
cal layer (PHY) manages radio transmissions and
receptions on the shared wireless medium, and
hence has a major eect on network performance
and energy consumption. The design objectives of
WSN MAC dier completely from traditional wire-
less voice and data networks, which pursue to max-
imize wireless medium utilization. In WSNs, MAC
is pursuing to provide energy-ecient, adaptive
and error tolerant operation, and adequate scalabil-
ity for large and dense networks having only few
kbit/s network throughput requirement [15].
M. Kohvakka et al. / Ad Hoc Networks 7 (2009) 2441 25
WSN MACs achieve energy-ecient low duty-
cycle operation by dividing time into consecutive
short active data exchange periods and relatively
long inactive periods. These low duty-cycle MACs
can be divided into two categories: unsynchronized
and synchronized.
Unsynchronized low duty-cycle MACs utilize
frequent channel sampling, as presented in Fig. 1.
Transmissions may be random and on-demand
basis. Each transmitted frame typically begins with
a preample (T
preample
) lasting longer than the chan-
nel sampling interval (T
interval
) that is typically set to
tens of milliseconds [16]. Hence, the periodic chan-
nel sampling can detect the preample of each trans-
mission prior to the actual data transmission. After
the detection of a preample, a node simply listens on
the channel until data are received. Unsynchronized
MACs are relatively simple and require less memory
compared to synchronized approaches. Common
feature to all of these is that the energy consumption
is directed to the transmitting node. Thus, it is more
expensive for a node to transmit a data frame than
to receive one. Because of the frequent channel sam-
pling and long preample transmission prior to each
data frame, unsynchronized MACs cannot reach
the energy eciency of the lowest power synchro-
nized MACs in low data-rate applications. The
most common unsynchronized MACs designed for
WSNs are B-MAC [17], SpeckMACB/D [16], and
WiseMAC [18].
Synchronized low duty-cycle MACs utilize a
periodic wakeup scheme, which divides time into a
sleep period (T
sleep
) and active period (T
active
)
repeated at T
wakeup_period
intervals, as presented in
Fig. 1. The active period is denoted as a superframe,
where a node rst broadcasts a beacon frame, and
then listens on the RF channel for possible incom-
ing data during a short channel access period. A
beacon is a periodic broadcast of network signaling,
which contains a node address, synchronization
information with the utilized RF channel and a
superframe schedule, and other network manage-
ment information. Upon receiving one beacon, a
node learns the exact timing of upcoming beacons
and active periods, and can then form synchronized
links to neighbors. Ideally, beacons are received
without idle listening. In practice, slight idle listen-
ing is caused by a synchronization granularity and
a crystal inaccuracy clocking wake-up timers. For
maximizing energy eciency, data frames are
exchanged time-accurately in pre-determined time
slots or a short contention access period right after
the beacon.
Current synchronized low duty-cycle MACs are
most suitable for applications where data are routed
continuously from a static sensor eld to sink nodes.
Since sleep periods typically last several seconds,
routing delay is higher than in unsynchronized
MACs. Another weakness of synchronized low
duty-cycle MACs is the energy consumption of
neighbor discovery procedures, which are required
for establishing synchronized communication links.
In current proposals, neighbor discoveries are per-
formed by network scans, which reduce network
energy eciency and data routing performance in
dynamic networks. In static networks, synchronized
MACs can achieve even one order of magnitude
lower energy consumption than unsynchronized
MACs [16,19,20].
According to our experiments, synchronized low
duty-cycle MAC schemes can achieve the highest
energy eciency also in dynamic networks, when
an ecient neighbor discovery protocol is used.
This is proved in this paper. Hence, we focus on syn-
chronized low duty-cycle MACs from now on.
2.2. Mobility support
Several studies have analyzed the eect of mobil-
ity on WSNenergy consumption [21] and data routing
Channel sampling for checking channel activity
c
Preample
T
interval
T
preample
Clear channel assessment
Source
Destination
Rx
Tx
Rx
Tx
Unsynchronized:
T
wakeup_period
Source
Destination
Rx
Tx
Rx
Tx
Synchronized:
T
active
T
sleep
Beacon transmission / reception
c c
c
Data Data
Data
Fig. 1. Operation principle of unsynchronized (B-MAC) and
synchronized (IEEE 802.15.4) low duty-cycle MAC protocols.
26 M. Kohvakka et al. / Ad Hoc Networks 7 (2009) 2441
performance [21,22]. These studies focus on routing
and transport sublayers, while assuming an ideal
MAC. However, very few studies exist, which aim
to improve MAC sublayer operation and energy
eciency on mobile WSN applications.
A mobility-aware sensor MAC (MS-MAC) [10]
protocol adjusts the interval of a network scans
according to observed node mobility. If no mobility
is observed, a 10 s long neighbor discovery is
repeated every 5 min. When a node detects mobility
by a change in the radio signal strength, a neighbor
discovery is performed instantly reducing the dis-
connection time after actual link breaks. In dynamic
networks, neighbor discovery is performed at most
twice a minute. A major disadvantage of the proto-
col is the high energy consumption of mobile nodes
due to the long and frequent network scans.
A study presented in [23] proposes the adjust-
ment of frame sizes according to a predicted bit
error rate. The prediction utilizes an Extended Kal-
man Filter (EKF), which deals with the time-vary-
ing wireless channel quality and the eect of frame
size on network performance. A smaller frame size
is selected when the signal characteristics are poor
reducing frame error rate and retransmissions. Lar-
ger frames are used when the quality of the channel
improves increasing obtained bandwidth. Accord-
ing to simulations, EKF improves the energy-e-
ciency of a synchronized low duty-cycle MAC
protocol about 24% at 5075 mph node speed.
A trac adaptive medium access (TRAMA) [24]
MAC proposal utilizes three assisting protocols
for signaling neighborhood information: a neighbor
protocol (NP), a schedule exchange protocol (SEP),
and an adaptive election algorithm (AEA). NP
gathers a list of node identities from a two-hop
neighborhood utilizing random access periods. This
information is used for eliminating hidden node col-
lisions, since only one transmitter per a two-hop
neighborhood is selected to transmit at a time.
SEP is used for signaling the set of receivers for
the trac originating at the node. This provides e-
cient unicast, multicast and broadcast transmis-
sions. AEA selects transmitters and receivers to
achieve collision free transmission, and to optimize
channel utilization and energy eciency using the
information obtained by NP and SEP.
TRAMA updates the two-hop neighborhood
information periodically by exchanging special sig-
naling frames with all neighbors during long-term
random access periods. Since an entire network
enters the random access period simultaneously sus-
pending data routing and requiring a constant
channel reception, the performance of TRAMA
decreases rapidly with increased network dynamics.
The IEEE 802.15.4 low-rate wireless personal
area network (LR-WPAN) [13] is a multi-purpose
standard specifying PHY and MAC layers. The Zig-
Bee Alliance [25] builds on this foundation, by pro-
viding a network layer and a framework for the
application layer. LR-WPAN has an option for
beacon-enabled mode, which together with a clus-
ter-tree network topology option enables a synchro-
nized low duty-cycle scheme with high energy
eciency [19].
LR-WPAN beacons contain a beacon payload
eld for carrying network signaling data. ZigBee rou-
ters (cluster heads) utilize this payload for signaling
time osets to their parent routers. Each router uti-
lizes this information for selecting a non-overlapping
time slot for its superframe. This is required, since all
clusters of a network operate in a single RF channel.
In the low duty-cycle mode, neighbor discoveries
are performed by network scans, which suspend
data routing. Thus, the performance of the ZigBee
decreases rapidly, as network dynamics increases.
The operation of mobile nodes in a stationary
sensor eld is improved in a self-organizing medium
access control for sensor networks (SMACS) [12]
by an eavesdrop-and-register (EAR) algorithm.
SMACS assigns a locally unique time slot and fre-
quency channel for each communication link. For
inviting new nodes to join the network, a xed glo-
bal signaling channel is used. Mobile nodes execute
the EAR algorithm. They register stationary nodes
in their range by receiving broadcast invitation mes-
sages on the signaling channel. Yet, the algorithm is
energy inecient, since mobile nodes must listen on
the channel nearly constantly.
The stationary nodes perform a neighbor discov-
ery at semi-regular intervals by entering a random
access BOOTUP mode [26]. In the BOOTUP mode,
a node broadcasts invitation messages on the signal-
ing channel, and listens on the channel for possible
responses and other invitation messages. Since the
BOOTUP mode suspends data exchanges and
requires a nearly continuous radio reception, net-
work performance reduces rapidly with increased
network dynamics.
Our earlier work with Tampere University of
Technology Wireless Sensor Network (TUTWSN)
[9] shows increased energy eciency of a dynamic
WSN by frequent beacon broadcasts on a xed
network signaling channel (network channel). As a
communication link fails or a new node arrives in a
sensor eld, a node can perform neighbor discovery
by listening to the network channel for one beacon
interval. With current TUTWSN prototypes, a net-
work beacon interval equals to 500 ms, while the
interval between superframes is several seconds.
The transmission of frequent beacons on the net-
work channel reduces signicantly the energy con-
sumption in dynamic networks [14].
TUTWSN forms a multi-cluster-tree topology,
where several cluster-tree structures are super-posi-
tioned allowing ecient multi-path routing, and high
tolerance against link failures. Each cluster consists
of a single cluster head (headnode) and several clus-
ter members (subnodes, or child headnodes). Each
headnode associates with several parents, which have
dierent routing performance metrics and provide
paths to dierent sinks. Hence, the multi-cluster-tree
topology can combine the advances of a well-orga-
nized and energy-ecient cluster-tree topology with
the exibility of a mesh topology.
3. Energy-ecient neighbor discovery protocol design
ENDP distributes neighborhood information
and uses the information for establishing new com-
munication links. The protocol permits mobility for
all nodes without signicant increase of energy con-
sumption or performance degradation. ENDP con-
sists of three parts: proactive distribution of neighbor
information, neighbor discovery algorithm for search-
ing new neighbors, and energy-ecient network scan
facilitated by additional beacon transmissions. The
former two parts minimize the need for network
scans, while the third part reduces the energy needed
by each scan.
3.1. Proactive distribution of neighbor information
ENDP operates above a synchronized low duty-
cycle MAC and utilizes the payloads of existing
MAC beacons for distributing neighbor informa-
tion. ENDP supports both clustered and non-clus-
tered network topologies. In clustered networks,
cluster heads distribute the schedules of other clus-
ter heads by transmitting beacons. Yet, all nodes
can receive the beacons and exploit the neighbor
discovery algorithm and the energy-ecient net-
work scan. In non-clustered networks, all nodes
transmit beacons, distribute the schedule of any
other node, and execute ENDP similarly. In both
cases, the operation principle of ENDP is similar.
The utilization of beacons for distributing neigh-
bor information has several benets. First, beacon
exchanges are synchronized by a MAC protocol.
This provides very low idle listening and energy
overhead due to additional control signal
exchanges. Second, beacons are quite short, which
provides energy-ecient implementation. In addi-
tion, there is no need for a new frame type. Most
importantly, the beacons are transmitted in any case
for maintaining link synchronization.
The distributed neighbor information consists of
synchronization information about all parents with
which synchronization is currently maintained.
Complete synchronization information referring to
one node is called a synchronization data unit
(SDU). SDU consists of two parts: the channel on
which the node is operating, and the time base dif-
ference (oset) between the node and the sender of
SDU. The latter is used to avoid the need for a glo-
bal time and to reduce the required value range,
thus tting the schedule information into fewer bits.
The distribution of SDUs is presented in Fig. 2.
Nodes I and L are parents to node M. Thus, node
M receives beacon transmissions from nodes I and
L. Similarly, node M is a parent to node K, which
receives beacons from M. We assume that even if
it would be physically possible for M to receive bea-
con transmissions from J, the node should only
maintain synchronization with a maximum of k
parents, which in this case equals to two.
Each node that transmits beacons derives SDUs
from its parents and piggybacks them in a beacon
payload. In this case, node I transmit the SDUs
M
L
F
E
K
G H
J
D C
I
A
B
Ch: 12
Ch: 35
Ch: 56
Ch: 55
Ch: 16
Offset:+220 ms
Offset:+150 ms
Offset:+100 ms
Offset:+390 ms Offset:+450 ms
Offset:+120 ms
Ch: 21
Node I, ch55, neighbors
[ch35,+150ms; ch12,+100ms]
Node L, ch21, neighbors[ch56,+450ms; ch16,+390ms]
Ch:07
Node M, ch07, neighbors
[ch55,+220ms; ch21,+120ms]
Fig. 2. Connectivity and distributed neighbor information.
Arrows indicate received beacons (k = 2).
about nodes A and B. Similarly, L transmits SDUs
about nodes H and G. Due to the beacon receptions
from nodes I and L, M has accumulated SDUs
about nodes A, B, G and H.
Next, we look at the processing of SDUs that
node K receives from node M. Clearly, it would be
possible that node M sends all SDUs it knows.
Yet, the number of nodes from which SDUs accu-
mulates will rise to a power on each step towards
further nodes. At the same time, the inaccuracy of
oset values cumulates degrading the reliability of
the protocol. Thus, it is feasible to send SDUs refer-
ring to direct parents only, and the beacon transmis-
sion of node M contains SDUs referring to nodes I
and L. Node K determines the beacon time t
beacon
I
of
node I by employing the SDU sent by neighbor M
as
t
beacon
I
t
beacon
M
t
offset
SDU
; 1
where t
beacon
M
is the known beacon transmission time
of node M and t
offset
SDU
is the oset stored in the SDU.
Since beacons are broadcast, some of the SDUs
node M receives from I and L may be duplicates
or refer to already known nodes. However, these sit-
uations can be detected, since SDU determines the
frequency and time moment unambiguously. Upon
receiving a new SDU, the timing is compared
against other known neighbors. Because beacons
are sent periodically, two beacon times (t
1
, t
2
) are
the same, if
9i; i 2 Z : t
1
t
2
i t
AC
< d; 2
where t
AC
is the access cycle length and d denotes
the inaccuracy of the oset value. The SDU is ig-
nored, if a neighbor having the same beacon time
and channel exists. Otherwise, the neighbor infor-
mation is updated. As neighbors may move out of
communication range, stored information is period-
ically checked and references to entries that are not
recently updated are removed.
Since a SDU consist of only few bytes of data,
one beacon can contain several SDUs causing only
a minimal energy overhead. By receiving one bea-
con from each parent, a node gets valid neighbor-
hood information in two-hop radius rapidly and
energy-eciently.
3.2. Neighbor discovery algorithm
The neighbor discovery algorithm operates on
two main principles: maintaining redundant com-
munication links and using the distributed informa-
tion for energy-ecient neighbor discovery. For
assuring a continuous data routing in a dynamic
network, adequate redundancy of communication
links is essential. The use of several parallel commu-
nication links is ideal for multi-cluster-tree network
topology, like TUTWSN. In the presented design,
up to k communication links are maintained. The
value of k depends on the frequency of link changes
and thus, the physical network topology and the
degree of network dynamics. Proper k-values are
experimentally evaluated later in this paper.
The operation of the neighbor discovery algo-
rithm is presented as a pseudocode as follows. The
algorithm employs neighbor lists that are updated
on received beacons and SDU information. N
*
is a
list of all known neighbors, whereas N
S
contains
neighbors from which periodic beacons are received.
The algorithm requires data memory for storing
two-hop neighborhood information. As the number
of neighbors is at most k, the total number of neigh-
bor entries is upper bounded to k + k
2
. The required
program memory space for the algorithm is typi-
cally less than 1 kbytes.
Symbols:
k: preferred number of nodes that synchroniza-
tion is maintained to
N
*
: list of all known neighbors
N
S
: list of synchronized neighbor nodes, N
S
N
*
q
0
: limit for minimum link quality required for
reception
q
+
: limit for good link quality
rssi(i): link quality to the node i
source(i): set of nodes that have advertised node i,
source(i) N
S
t
s
: network scan timer
NEIGHBOR_DISCOVERY()
1: if N
S
= then
2: if timer t
S
has expired then
3: perform network scan until high RSSI
value or k nodes are found
4: N
S
nodes found during the scan
5: reset timer t
S
6: end if
7: end if
8: if |N
S
| < k then
9: N =
10: for all i 2 (N
*
N
S
) do
11: receive a beacon from i
12: if reception was successful then
13: update rssi(i) based on the beacon
reception
14: if rssi(i) Pq
+
then
15: N
S
N
S
[ i
16: if |N
S
| Pk then
17: return
18: end if
19: else if rssi(i) Pq
0
then
20: N N [ {i}
21: end if
22: end if
23: end for
24: N
S
N
S
[ select k |N
S
| nodes from N that
have the highest RSSI
25: end if
Initially, a node does not know any neighbors
and a network scan is required (rows 17). For min-
imizing the network scan duration, the scan is n-
ished when either a neighbor with high RSSI or k
neighbors are found. Since a neighbor with a high
link quality has also a high probability of advertis-
ing other neighbors within nodes communication
range, the rest of the k nodes are searched by
SDUs.
The network scan utilizes second resolution timer
t
s
to prevent constant scanning. For saving energy,
t
s
is gradually increased if no neighbors are found.
For fast neighbor discovery, the timer is set to
expire immediately when all parents are lost. As
beacons provide enough information for synchroni-
zation, network scans are rare. Thus, the selection
of timeout value t
s
is not critical in normal opera-
tion, when suitable neighbors in a range exist.
SDUs are utilized for obtaining connectivity up
to k neighbors (rows 825). The algorithm iterates
through all known neighbors (N
*
) and attempts to
receive beacons from the neighbors, which the node
is not already synchronized with. If the RSSI value
of received beacon is equal to or higher than q
+
, the
node is added to the list N
S
and synchronization
with the node is maintained. Otherwise, if the signal
strength is adequate for communication, the neigh-
bor information is cached and the algorithm contin-
ues for discovering a high quality link.
If the number of detected high quality links is not
adequate, the rest of the links are selected among
the cached neighbor information by selecting the
highest RSSI values (row 24). When several choices
with near equal link quality are available, a set of
neighbors having together the highest number of
unique SDUs is selected. This creates comprehen-
sive neighborhood information improving protocol
performance and network robustness.
As beacon schedules are exactly known, synchro-
nization attempts are made by short beacon recep-
tion periods. Thus, the neighbor detection using
SDU information has an additional benet over
the traditional network scan, as a node can sleep
or communicate with other neighbors while discov-
ering its neighborhood. As all nodes exploit the
neighbor discovery algorithm similarly, random
mobility for all nodes is allowed. The maximum
degree of mobility is mostly limited by a routing
protocol.
3.3. Energy-ecient network scan
Neighbor discovery by a network scan is
unavoidable at a start-up, when waking up from a
long-term sleep, or when all links are lost. For per-
forming the scan eciently, the frequency channels
and transmission interval of beacons must be pre-
determined. If nodes operate on several frequency
channels, the neighbor discovery may be applied
on each possible frequency, as in IEEE 802.15.4.
A drawback is that the time and energy consumed
by the scan is multiplied by the number of scanned
channels. Another alternative is to use a network-
wide xed channel for neighbor discovery. In both
cases the duration and energy of a network scan
reduces by minimizing beacon transmission interval.
As beacon transmissions also consume power, an
optimal beacon interval is achieved when the sum
of beacon transmission and network scan energy
consumptions is minimized [14].
As compared in [27], narrow band and high data-
rate transceivers operating on the 2.4 GHz Indus-
trial, Scientic and Medical (ISM) band are the
most suitable for WSNs due to their low energy con-
sumption per a transmitter or received bit of PHY
layer data. With a typical 1 MHz bandwidth, the
theoretical maximum number of separate channels
is 83. According to our experiments with Nordic
Semiconductor nRF24L01 and nRF2401A trans-
ceivers, the number of non-interfering (orthogonal)
channels is 21. In addition, the 2.4 GHz spread spec-
trum transceiver of IEEE 802.15.4 has 16 channels
and several orthogonal channels.
If beacons share the same frequency channel with
data transmissions, while beacon transmission rate
is high, the probability of collisions with data
frames is signicant. For minimizing idle listening,
the transmission times of beacons should be
accurate. Thus, collision avoidance by channel sens-
ing prior to beacon transmissions is impractical.
Due to the above, the use of a separate global net-
work channel for network scan is feasible and well
reasoned.
In the following example implementation with a
multi-cluster tree topology, two types of beacons
are utilized: cluster beacons on a cluster channel
and network beacons on a network channel. As pre-
sented in Fig. 3, network beacons are broadcast by
all cluster heads during inactive periods. This is eas-
ily managed by a single radio transceiver, since it
can be tuned to a dierent frequency channel very
rapidly. The network scan is performed by receiving
the network beacons on the network channel. The
maximum network scan duration that is required
for receiving a network beacon from all neighboring
cluster heads equals to one network beacon interval.
Due to the dedicated network channel, the net-
work beacons can collide with other network bea-
cons only. However, we can assume that the
transmission interval of network beacons is several
orders of magnitude longer than the length of a sin-
gle network beacon transmission. Thus, the collision
probability of network beacons can be considered
very low. In addition, we can assume that an ade-
quate number of SDUs can be obtained by a net-
work scan even though some collisions happen.
Hence, the eect of occasional beacon collisions
on network performance is minimal. Thus, the net-
work beacons are transmitted without collision
avoidance. This improves the achieved energy-e-
ciency, since energy consumption of beacon trans-
missions is minimized.
For improving scalability and reducing colli-
sions, the presented implementation utilizes several
cluster channels such that superframes are divided
by time and frequency. In practice, each cluster uti-
lizes a locally unique frequency and time slot for its
superframe. The frequency and time slot are
selected and dynamically adjusted according to the
neighborhood information obtained from network
scans and ENDP protocol.
The network and cluster beacons may be similar,
but the utilization of dierent frame types allows
shorter beacons and more energy-ecient imple-
mentation. While cluster beacons contain vital
information for data exchanges in superframes, net-
work beacons contain node status information for
the selection of an appropriate neighbor for associ-
ation. The transmission of network beacons can be
implemented as an extension in a MAC protocol.
The network scan with the network channel exten-
sion is implemented simply by conguring the fre-
quency channel and scan duration parameters.
Network beacons perform best, when their trans-
mission rate is uniform and globally known in entire
network. In the current implementation, the trans-
mission rate of network beacons is determined
before deployment according to statistically esti-
mated link lifetimes. However, a more ecient
option is to adjust the network beacon rate dynam-
ically. We propose that each node observes and
maintains a record of an average link lifetime. The
maintained values are transmitted to a sink period-
ically, or on request. According to the gathered link
lifetimes, the sink determines an energy optimal net-
work beacon rate for the network and oods the
resulted rate through the network in a control
frame.
Although the utilization of a network channel is
not necessitated by ENDP, we discuss shortly its
eects on ENDP. For improving the eciency of
network scans, it is recommended to transfer SDUs
in network beacons. Then, each node can detect all
neighbors and their parents by the short network
scan.
Generally, nodes maintain synchronization with
their parents by receiving cluster beacons. For
updating SDU information, nodes should occasion-
ally receive also network beacons from their
parents. The reception of network beacons can be
performed energy-eciently, if the transmission
time
time
Superframes
time
time
time
Reception time for
neighbor discovery
Network beacons of:
T
wakeup_period
Network beacon
Network
channel
Cluster
head D
(Ch: 4)
Cluster
head C
(Ch: 3)
Cluster
head B
(Ch: 2)
Cluster
head A
(Ch: 1)
Cluster
head A:
Cluster
head B:
Cluster
head C:
Cluster
head D:
t
pre
Fig. 3. Principle of frequent network beacons.
times of at least some of the beacons are known. In
our implementation, one network beacon is always
transmitted exactly t
pre
before each cluster beacon.
Hence, a network beacon can be received with a
minimum idle listening and the complexity of syn-
chronization does not increase. If the beacon recep-
tion fails, due to a collision or other reason, the
reception is retried prior to the next cluster beacon.
The transmission moments of other network bea-
cons are coarsely dened and they always have a
lower priority than data exchanges. An optimal
interval of network beacon receptions is a trade
o between energy consumption of network beacon
receptions and the freshness of SDU information.
4. TUTWSN prototype platform
TUTWSN prototype is a development platform
designed for testing and analyzing the operation of
real WSN applications. In this paper, the platforms
are utilized for experimentally measuring the perfor-
mance of ENDP. In addition, measured static
power consumptions of the platform are used as
an input for a performance analysis.
The TUTWSN physical platform contains a
Microchip PIC18LF4620 MicroController Unit
(MCU), which integrates an 8-bit processor core
with 64 kbytes FLASH program memory, 4 kbytes
RAM data memory, and 1 kbyte EEPROM. The
clock frequency is 4 MHz resulting in 1 MIPS
performance.
For wireless communication, the platform has
a Nordic Semiconductor nRF2401A 2.4 GHz
radio with selectable 250 kbps or 1 Mbps transmis-
sion data-rate and 83 available frequency channels.
Transmission power level is selectable between 20
and 0 dBm with four steps. The radio has an inter-
face for low speed MCU, which consists of 32 bytes
data buers for transmission and reception, and
integrated logic for address recognition and cycling
redundancy check (CRC) error detection. These
simplify data processing in MCU and allow low
speed data exchange between MCU and radio.
The radio does not provide RSSI functionality. A
loop antenna is implemented by a PCB trace, which
has a dipole radiation pattern and around +4 dBi
directivity (simulated).
The prototype is powered by a 3.0 V and
1600 mAh CR123A lithium battery. The battery
voltage is converted to 2.25 V supply voltage by a
MAX1725 linear regulator.
The implemented TUTWSN prototype is pre-
sented in Fig. 4. The prototype is 124 mm 21 mm
sized, and encapsulated in a waterproof plastic
enclosure. The prototype consists of two separate
boards, one for MCU, radio, voltage regulation,
and temperature sensor, and the other for battery,
push button, LED, and I/O connector.
4.1. Prototype power analysis
For the performance analysis, static power con-
sumptions of the implemented platform are mea-
sured at utilized operation modes. The results are
presented in Table 1. The supply voltage used in
the measurements is 3.0 V. The minimum achiev-
able power consumption is 37 lW, when the whole
system is in a sleep mode. The power consumption
increases to 3.17 mW, when MCU is in active mode
and running at 1 MIPS speed. The transmission
Antenna
Transceiver
Battery
MCU
Temperature
sensor
Voltage regulation
Push button
and LED
Fig. 4. TUTWSN prototype platform.
(TX) of a frame with active MCU consumes the
power between 29.57 and 42.17 mW, depending on
the transmission power level (20 to 0 dBm). In
the following analysis, we approximate that the
average transmission power level is 6 dBm, which
consumes 34.67 mW power (P
TX
). The highest
power (P
RX
) of 60.17 mW is consumed in reception
mode (RX). Depending on the operation mode, the
transceiver consumes 10 and 20 times the power of
MCU in active mode.
4.2. Radio energy models
For analyzing the performance of ENDP, we rst
model the behavior of the utilized platform. Radio
energy models dene the energy consumptions of
required transceiver operations, including a frame
transmission and reception, and a network scan.
In addition, the non-idealities of PHY layer are con-
sidered incorporating radio start-up time (t
ST
), crys-
tal tolerance (e), and synchronization inaccuracy
(t
I
). All essential phases of the radio operations
are identied by oscilloscope measurements. In the
current implementation, the time base error due
synchronization inaccuracy and time drift is typi-
cally within 50 ls. When attempting to receive a
beacon from a parents parent according to SDU
information, inaccuracy is higher due to two sepa-
rate synchronizations and higher time drift. Accord-
ing to the measurements, the oset inaccuracy (d)
over two hops is typically within 250 ls.
While the frame formats vary according to proce-
dures, the radio frame in TUTWSN has a xed
length of 256 bits, which is the maximum data buer
size of the radio. In the following models, we
assume that the active times of MCU and radio
are equal. Hence, the MCU power is included in
the power consumptions of transmission and recep-
tion modes. The symbols with dened values are
presented in Table 2.
A frame transmission consists of a radio start-up
transient and the actual data transmission dened as
the ratio of frame length (L
F
) and radio data-rate
(R). During a start-up transient, the radio power
consumption is equal to the transmission mode
power (P
TX
). Thus, the frame transmission energy
E
TX
is modeled as
E
TX
t
ST

L
F
R

P
TX
: 3
A frame reception begins with the radio start-up
transient. The radio consumes the reception mode
power (P
RX
) until a frame has been completely
received. An average idle listening time caused by
synchronization inaccuracy and crystal tolerance is
included. The frame reception energy E
RX
is
E
RX
t
ST
t
I

2e
f
C
L
F
R

P
RX
: 4
The energy consumption of a beacon reception
according to SDU information is modeled sepa-
rately due to a higher synchronization error. An
average reception time includes radio start-up tran-
sient, time oset inaccuracy (d), and the frame
length. Thus, the beacon reception energy utilizing
SDU information E
SDU
RX
is
E
SDU
RX
t
ST
d
L
F
R

P
RX
: 5
Table 2
Symbol descriptions and dened values
Symbol Description Dened value
d Inaccuracy of SDU time oset 250 ls
d Node density 0.1 nodes/m
2
e Crystal tolerance 20 ppm
f
C
Cluster beacon transmission rate 0.5 Hz
f
N
Network beacon transmission rate 0.01100 Hz
f
U
Network beacon reception rate 0.5 Hz
k Number of nodes with which
synchronization is maintained
14
L
F
Frame length 256 bits
n Nodes within a radio range Variable
r Radio range 10 m
q Range of sucient signal strength
compared to maximum radio range
0.5
R Radio data-rate 1 Mbps
t
I
Synchronization inaccuracy 50 ls
t
ST
Transmitter and receiver start-up time 200 ls
Table 1
Measured TUTWSN prototype power consumptions
Symbol MCU Transceiver Power (mW)
P
RX
1 MIPS RX 60.17
1 MIPS TX (0 dBm) 42.17
P
TX
1 MIPS TX (6 dBm) 34.67
1 MIPS TX (12 dBm) 31.37
1 MIPS TX (20 dBm) 29.57
1 MIPS Stand-by 3.29
1 MIPS Sleep 3.17
Sleep Sleep 0.037
Since some of the two-hop neighbors signaled in
SDUs are out of the nodes range, beacon reception
may result in a failure. Due to the time oset inac-
curacy, the reception margins are wide and their
eect on network energy consumption may be sig-
nicant. Since both positive and negative time oset
errors are considered, the energy consumption of an
unsuccessful beacon reception based on SDU infor-
mation E
SDU
RXU
is
E
SDU
RXU
t
ST
2d
L
F
R

P
RX
: 6
A network scan begins with a radio start-up tran-
sient and continues by a channel reception until t
NS
is elapsed. Thus, the network scan energy E
NS
can
be modeled as
E
NS
t
ST
t
NS
P
RX
: 7
Because the energy consumption of individual bea-
con receptions is negligibly compared to the net-
work scan energy, they are ignored in the model.
5. Performance analysis
For making the analysis of ENDP independent
of data exchanges, we divide the energy consumed
in a wireless sensor node in three classes [14]: node
start-up, network maintenance, and data exchange
energies as presented in Fig. 5. The node start-up
energy consists of neighbor discovery and network
association operations. The network maintenance
and data exchange operations are executed after
the start-up period during the node lifetime. The
network maintenance energy consists of beacon
transmissions and receptions (beacon exchange),
network scans, and possible re-associations. The
data exchange energy is consumed by payload data
transmissions and receptions, and the MAC signal-
ing frames related to data transmissions, such as
acknowledgments.
As the lifetime of nodes is expected to be from
months to years, the start-up energy is negligible
compared to the total node energy consumption.
Furthermore, we assume that data exchange opera-
tions are not aected by network maintenance oper-
ations. Hence, from now on we focus on the
network maintenance operations.
In the following analysis, we rst model the per-
formance of ENDP, and then energy optimize the
transmission rate of network beacons. For simplic-
ity, we analyze the energy consumption of a single
mobile node moving in a stationary sensor eld.
In addition, a non-clustered network, where all
nodes transmit beacons is considered. Energy con-
sumption is determined over 1 s periods of opera-
tion, which equals to average power consumption.
The evaluation of average power instead of energy
is more convenient due to the time independency.
5.1. Network scan interval
Assuming a uniform node distribution, let node
density be d nodes/m
2
. This results that n = dpr
2
nodes are located in a radio range (r). Let us con-
sider a node that maintains synchronization and
receives SDUs from k neighboring nodes. As a node
moves in a stationary WSN eld at speed v, a com-
munication link failure occurs when any of the k
links fails. Hence, a link failure rate (f
F
) is
f
F

kv
r
: 8
Next, we model the probability of a successful
neighbor discovery by utilizing SDUs. Let us con-
sider a situation presented in Fig. 6, where the node
A maintains synchronization and receives SDUs
from nodes B and D. The distance between nodes
A and B is b, and their radio ranges form circles
with a radius r. Moreover, node B maintains
S
t
a
r
t
-
u
p

e
n
e
r
g
y
:
N
e
t
w
o
r
k

s
c
a
n
N
e
t
w
o
r
k

a
s
s
o
c
i
a
t
i
o
n
Data exchange energy:
Upper layer payload data and
acknowledgement exchange
Beacon transmissions and receptions
Network scans
Node lifetime
Start-up
period
time
Fig. 5. WSN node energy classication.
S
A
A B
C D E
S
A B
S
B
r r
b
Fig. 6. Intersections of the communication ranges of nodes A
and B. Arrows show the direction of synchronization.
synchronization with nodes C and E located in its
range. Since the node E is in the intersection area
of the ranges of A and B (S
A\B
), A can receive its
(beacon) transmissions and the signaled SDU is
valid. Since the node C is outside the area S
A\B
,
node A cannot detect its transmissions resulting in
an invalid SDU. The size of the intersection area
S
A\B
is calculated by the radius r and the distance
b as [28]
A
A\B
b 4
Z
r
b=2
r
2
x
2
p
dx: 9
Thus, the probability that a node located in S
B
is
also in the intersection area S
A\B
equals to
A
A\B
(b)pr
2
. Moreover, let nodes A and B be ran-
domly located neighbors, where b gets a value in
the range [0, r], and A receives SDUs from B. The
probability p
I
that a received SDU is valid is deter-
mined by integrating the probability A
A\B
(b)pr
2
over the circle of radius b centered at A for b in
[0, r] we obtain [28]:
p
I

Z
r
0
2bA
A\B
b
pr
4
db % 59%: 10
Each node maintains synchronization with k
other nodes, which all generate k SDUs. We model
the probability (q) that all of the received k
2
SDUs
are invalid and a network scan is required. Clearly,
the probability of invalid SDU is (1 P
I
) on the
rst attempt. Then, on each attempt (a) from two
to k, the number of nodes outside the intersection
area S
A\B
is reduced by one. The result is raised
to the power of k according to the number of nodes
from which SDUs are received. Thus, q is
q
Y
k
a1
1
np
I
n a 1

k
: 11
Finally, the required network scan interval (I
NS
) is
I
NS

1
f
F
q
: 12
5.2. Number of beacon receptions
After a link failure, a node attempts to receive
beacons according to SDUs until a new neighbor
with sucient signal strength is detected, or all
(k
2
) SDUs are examined. We dene that the range
of sucient signal strength in proportion to maxi-
mum radio range (r) is q. The probability of nding
a suitable neighbor on a rst attempt is p
I
q
2
. If the
attempt fails, the number of nodes outside the area
of sucient signal strength is decreased. The proba-
bilities of nding a suitable neighbor using a
attempts, ranging from one to k
2
are determined.
Then, the expected number (u) of beacon reception
attempts is modeled by a weighted average as
u p
I
q
2
X
k
2
1
a2
a
Y
a1
b1
1
np
I
q
2
n b 1
!
np
I
q
2
n a 1
k
2
Y
k
2
1
a1
1
np
I
q
2
n a 1
!
: 13
Since a dense network is assumed, duplicate SDUs
and SDUs referring to a current parent are not con-
sidered in the model.
If no new neighbors are detected by SDUs, a net-
work scan is performed. Similarly, the network scan
is performed until a node within a range of qr is
detected. The number of beacon receptions (n
B
)
until a beacon with sucient signal strength is
received is
n
B
q
2
X
n1
a2
a
Y
a1
b1
1
nq
2
n b 1
!
nq
2
n a 1
n
Y
n1
a1
1
nq
2
n a 1
!
: 14
Finally, the required network scan duration (t
NS
)
is
t
NS

n
B
f
N
n
: 15
The resulted network scan duration is presented in
Fig. 7, while the interval of network beacon trans-
missions varies. If the number of nodes within radio
range (n) is high, t
NS
is reduced even one order of
magnitude compared to the entire network beacon
interval.
5.3. Network maintenance power consumption
A network maintenance power P
M
is dened as
the sum of a network scan power P
NS
and a beacon
exchange power P
B
. The power consumed by net-
work scans P
NS
is dened as the energy of a single
scan procedure E
NS
divided by the average interval
of scans I
NS
. The long-time average of network scan
power is obtained by
P
NS
f
F
q t
ST

n
B
f
N
n

P
RX
: 16
The transmission rates of cluster and network
beacon are f
C
and f
N
, respectively. Cluster beacons
are received at the beginning of superframes at rate
f
C
from k neighbors with which synchronization is
maintained. For updating two-hop neighborhood
information, network beacons carrying SDUs are
received at rate f
U
from k neighbors. Moreover, link
failures occur at rate f
F
after which averagely u clus-
ter beacons are received employing SDU informa-
tion. The average power consumed by the beacon
exchange is
P
B
f
N
f
C
E
TX
kf
C
f
U
E
RX
f
F
u 1E
SDU
RXU
E
SDU
RX

: 17
For ensuring valid SDU information also in
very dynamic networks, f
U
is xed to f
C
. The
network is congured with the parameter values
dened in Table 2. First, the network maintenance
power is analyzed as the function of network
beacon rate. The results with 0.1 and 10 m/s node
velocities are presented in Figs. 8 and 9. As
conventional network scans without the network
beacon signaling scheme are employed, the net-
work maintenance power consumptions are 1.23
and 60.17 mW, respectively. By adding the net-
work beacons, the minimum network maintenance
powers are achieved at 2.5 and 18 Hz network
beacon rates resulting in 95 and 742 lW power
consumptions, respectively. The lowest power con-
sumption is achieved by combining network
beacons with ENDP. The resulted minimum
power consumptions at 0.1 and 10 m/s node veloc-
ities are 87 lW (k = 1) and 397 lW (k = 2),
respectively. At these settings, the energy saving
compared to conventional network scans is 93
99%.
For evaluating the eect of synchronization error
on ENDP performance, network maintenance
power is analyzed, while the SDU oset inaccuracy
(d) varies from 50 to 1000 ls. In this analysis, k is
xed to two. First, v is set to 0.1 m/s and the results
are plotted in Fig. 10. An energy optimal network
beacon rate is around 0.43 Hz, when the network
maintenance power is between 94 and 98 lW. Thus,
the eect of synchronization inaccuracy is only 4%
in rather static networks.
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Network beacon transmission rate (Hz)
N
e
t
w
o
r
k

m
a
i
n
t
e
n
a
n
c
e

p
o
w
e
r

(
m
W
)
Conventional scan
Without ENDP
ENDP, k=1
ENDP, k=2
ENDP, k=3
ENDP, k=4
v = 0.1 m/s
Fig. 8. Network maintenance power at 0.1 m/s node velocity, as
k varies.
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
N
e
t
w
o
r
k

m
a
i
n
t
e
n
a
n
c
e

p
o
w
e
r

(
m
W
)
Conventional scan
Without ENDP
ENDP, k=1
ENDP, k=2
ENDP, k=3
ENDP, k=4
v = 10 m/s
Fig. 9. Network maintenance power at 10 m/s node velocity, as k
varies.
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
R
e
q
u
i
r
e
d

n
e
t
w
o
r
k

s
c
a
n

t
i
m
e

(
s
) d=0.013 nodes/m^2
d=0.025 nodes/m^2
d=0.064 nodes/m^2
d=0.32 nodes/m^2
d=0.013 nodes/m
2
d=0.025 nodes/m
2
d=0.064 nodes/m
2
d=0.32 nodes/m
2
Fig. 7. The eect of node density and network beacon transmis-
sion rate to the required network scan time.
Then, v is set to 10 m/s. Obtained results are
presented in Fig. 11. An energy optimal network
beacon rate is 4.8 Hz. As d gets values 50, 250,
500 and 1000 ls, network maintenance powers are
333, 397, 478 and 640 lW, respectively. Without
ENDP, the power consumption is 742 lW. The
results depict that ENDP is susceptible for synchro-
nization errors in dynamic networks. However, even
with the highest 1000 ls inaccuracy, the resulted
power consumptions are signicantly lower than
without ENDP.
5.4. Energy optimal network beacon rate
As seen in the previous analysis, the network
maintenance power depends signicantly on the rate
of network beacon transmission. For obtaining the
highest energy-eciency, the network beacon rate
should be energy optimized according to network
dynamics.
An energy optimal network beacon rate f
N
is
determined by minimizing the network maintenance
power (P
M
) with respect to the beacon transmission
rate. It can be shown that there exists a unique min-
imum for f
N
that is obtained by setting oP
M
/of
N
= 0
[14]. This yields:
f
n
B
P
RX
E
TX
I
NS
n
r
: 18
An optimal network beacon rate is determined
by beacon frame transmission energy (E
TX
), radio
power consumption in reception mode (P
RX
) and
number of nodes in range (n). Furthermore, n
B
and I
NS
are functions of the range of sucient signal
strength (q), node speed (v), radio range (r) and the
number of nodes with which synchronization is
maintained (k).
The energy optimal beacon transmission rate is
plotted as the function of node speed in Fig. 12.
As seen in the gure, the optimal rate increases pro-
portionally to the node speed. In addition, ENDP
reduces the optimal beacon rate even three orders
of magnitude. Fig. 13 presents the energy optimal
beacon rate as a function of nodes in a range. At
higher node densities the optimal beacon transmis-
sion rate decreases, since the required network scan
time (t
NS
) reduces. In very sparse networks, the
optimal beacon rate also decreases, especially when
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
N
e
t
w
o
r
k

m
a
i
n
t
e
n
a
n
c
e

p
o
w
e
r

(
m
W
)
Without ENDP
ENDP, = 50 s
ENDP, = 250 s
ENDP, = 500 s
ENDP, = 1000 s
v = 0.1 m/s
Fig. 10. The eect of SDU time oset inaccuracy on the network
maintenance power at 0.1 m/s node velocity.
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
N
e
t
w
o
r
k

m
a
i
n
t
e
n
a
n
c
e

p
o
w
e
r

(
m
W
)
Without ENDP
ENDP, = 50 s
ENDP, = 250 s
ENDP, = 500 s
ENDP, = 1000 s
v = 10 m/s
Fig. 11. The eect of SDU time oset inaccuracy on the network
maintenance power at 10 m/s node velocity.
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
0.01 0.1 1 10
Node mobility (m/s)
E
n
e
r
g
y

o
p
t
i
m
a
l

b
e
a
c
o
n

r
a
t
e

(
H
z
)
Without ENDP
ENDP, k=1
ENDP, k=2
ENDP, k=3
ENDP, k=4
Fig. 12. Energy optimal beacon transmission rate as the function
of node mobility.
k is 3 or 4. This is caused by fewer beacon receptions
(u) until one beacon with sucient signal strength is
received. In addition, ENDP reduces the optimal
beacon rate up to four orders of magnitude. These
results indicate that ENDP can eectively reduce
the need for network scans.
6. Experimental measurements
The performance of the implemented ENDP is
measured experimentally with TUTWSN prototype
platforms and TUTWSN protocol stack. As the
prototype platform lacks the RSSI functionality, a
simple path-loss metering mechanism is imple-
mented by replacing each beacon transmission with
two consecutive beacons transmitted at dierent
transmission power levels. A path-loss is interpreted
from successfully received beacons, as presented in
[29]. Totally eight nodes are congured to head-
nodes and deployed in an oce environment, as
presented in Fig. 14. One node is mobile in the sta-
tionary sensor eld as presented in the gure. The
radio range varies from 10 to 120 m depending on
the node position. The maximum range is achieved
along a long corridor, while walls attenuate RF
propagation very signicantly.
The average power consumption is determined
by powering the mobile node by a 0.2 F (C) super
capacitor and measuring the slope of capacitor ter-
minal voltage. In practice, the elapsed time (t) when
capacitor terminal voltage (U) decreases from 5.0 to
4.0 V is measured. Since the prototype platforms are
equipped with linear voltage regulators, the rela-
tively high input voltage does not aect prototype
current consumption, except a negligible small
increase of a quiescent current. Thus, average power
consumption (P) is calculated as
P
dU
dt
CU
0
; 19
where U
0
is the nominal battery voltage (3.0 V) of
the prototype platform. Thus, resulted power con-
sumptions are applicable for lithium battery pow-
ered nodes.
For the measurements, the mobile node is cong-
ured to a subnode operation. This minimizes the
data exchange power consumption, which is essen-
tial when focusing to the power consumption of net-
work maintenance operations. The mobile node
transmits a 32 bytes diagnostics data frame on a
contention-free time slot at 8 s intervals. In addi-
tion, control frames for association and slot reserva-
tion requests are transmitted after communication
link changes. The transmission interval of network
beacons is xed to 500 ms, thus dening the maxi-
mum duration of a single network scan.
The power consumption of the mobile node is
measured while executing ENDP and varying k
between 2 and 4. For comparison, power consump-
tion is also measured without ENDP, when new
neighbors are searched by network scans. Measure-
ments are performed with node velocities of 1 and
3 m/s, and without mobility.
The results are presented in Fig. 15. The results
prove that ENDP eectively reduces the power
consumption of a mobile node. In this case, ENDP
operates most eectively when k is three. Then, the
resulting energy saving is 5780% compared to
the situation without ENDP. In contrast to
analysis, the network beacon rate is not adjusted
and energy optimized according to network
120 m
Stationary nodes Sink Mobility pattern
Fig. 14. Network topology for performance measurements.
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
0 50 100 150 200
Nodes in a range
E
n
e
r
g
y

o
p
t
i
m
a
l

b
e
a
c
o
n

r
a
t
e

(
H
z
)
Without ENDP ENDP, k=1
ENDP, k=2 ENDP, k=3
ENDP, k=4
Fig. 13. Energy optimal beacon transmission rate as the function
of nodes in a range (v = 1 m/s).
dynamics. This results in higher energy consump-
tion of network scans. When all nodes are station-
ary, ENDP increases node power consumption
300640 lW.
The experimental measurements result in higher
power consumptions than mathematical analysis.
This is partly caused by the data exchanges and
the path-loss metering method substituting for
RSSI. The method increases signicantly the num-
ber of unsuccessful beacon receptions. In addition,
the energy consumptions of data processing and
sensing are not included in the analysis. Moreover,
the oce environment caused signicant fading,
gaining and shadowing on RF propagation making
link changes more frequent and protocol operation
more dicult than in an open space. However, the
experimental measurements clearly proved the per-
formance of ENDP.
7. Conclusions
The design and implementation of a novel neigh-
bor discovery protocol are presented. The proposed
ENDP signicantly reduces the frequency of high-
energy network scans and supports high node
mobility by eectively distributing synchronization
information over two-hop neighborhood in MAC
beacon payloads. Furthermore, a unique beacon
signaling scheme is presented and optimized to
allow energy-ecient network scans needed on a
start-up and when ENDP based neighbor discovery
fails.
According to performance results, the beacon
signaling scheme achieves 9299% energy saving
compared to conventional network scans. ENDP
can further reduce energy consumption up to 46%.
In static networks, energy overhead is only slight.
Experimental measurements indicate up to 80%
energy saving compared to network scan based
neighbor discovery with the beacon signaling
scheme. ENDP can operate above any synchronized
low duty-cycle scheme, such as S-MAC and the bea-
con-enabled mode of IEEE 802.15.4.
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M
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a
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u
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e
d

p
o
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(
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W
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without ENDP
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Mikko Kohvakka (M.Sc.01, TUT)
received the M.Sc. in electrical engineer-
ing from Tampere University of Tech-
nology (TUT), Finland. He is currently
pursuing his Ph.D. in the Institute of
Digital and Computer Systems at TUT.
His research interests include hardware
platforms and MAC layer issues in
wireless sensor and ad hoc networks.
Jukka Suhonen (M.Sc.04, TUT)
received the M.Sc. in computer science
from the Tampere University of Tech-
nology (TUT), Finland. He is currently
pursuing his Ph.D. in the Institute of
Digital and Computer Systems at TUT.
His research interests include wireless
networking, network protocol and algo-
rithm design, and Quality of Service
issues in wireless networks.
Mauri Kuorilehto (M.Sc.01, TUT)
received the M.Sc. in Computer Science
from Tampere University of Technology
(TUT), Finland. He is currently pursuing
his Ph.D. in the Institute of Digital and
Computer Systems at TUT. His research
interests include network simulation,
operating systems, and application dis-
tribution in wireless sensor and ad hoc
networks.
Ville Kaseva is a fth year student at
Tampere University of Technology
(TUT), and pursuing his M.Sc. in the
Institute of Digital and Computer Sys-
tems. His research interests are user
interfaces, sensor integration and loca-
tioning services for wireless sensor
networks.
Marko Hannikainen (M.Sc.98, Ph.D.02,
TUT) acts as a senior research scientist
at the Institute of Digital and Computer
Systems at TUT, and a project manager
in the DACI research group. His
research interests include wireless local
and personal area networking, wireless
sensor and ad hoc networks, and novel
web services.
Timo D. Hamalainen (M.Sc.93,
Ph.D.97, TUT) acted as a senior
research scientist and project manager at
TUT in 19972001. He was nominated
to full professor at TUT/Institute of
Digital and Computer Systems in 2001.
He heads the DACI research group that
focuses on three main lines: wireless local
area networking and wireless sensor
networks, high-performance DSP/HW
based video encoding, and interconnec-
tion networks with design ow tools for heterogeneous SoC
platforms.

PUBLICATION 5
M. Kohvakka, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, Energy Optimized Beacon
Transmission Rate in a Wireless Sensor Network, in Proceedings of the 16th Inter-
national Symposiumon Personal Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC
2005), Berlin, Germany, Sep. 1114, 2005, pp. 12691273.
2005 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from the proceedings of the 16th Interna-
tional Symposium on Personal Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications 2005.
Energy Optimized Beacon Transmission Rate in
a Wireless Sensor Network
Mikko Kohvakka, Marko Hnnikinen, and Timo D. Hmlinen
Institute of Digital and Computer Systems
P.O.Box 553, FI-33101 Tampere, Finland
mikko.kohvakka@tut.fi, marko.hannikainen@tut.fi, timo.d.hamalainen@tut.fi

AbstractResource constrained Wireless Sensor Networks
(WSN) require an energy efficient Medium Access Control
(MAC) protocol that minimizes the radio active time (duty cycle).
Time slotted MAC schemes provide lowest duty cycles by
dividing time into consecutive data exchange and sleep periods.
Synchronization for data exchange and network maintenance is
achieved by exchanging beacons. For detecting changes in
network topology, nodes periodically perform scanning during
which beacons are received from neighbors. This is energy
consuming, and the energy required equals to the transmission of
thousands of packets. This paper shows that the energy
consumption is mainly depending on the beacon transmission
rate, and that an optimal rate is a function of three parameters: a
network scanning interval, beacon transmission energy, and
radio reception power. The optimal beacon transmission rate is
derived for a TUTWSN prototype by power analysis and energy
models. According to the analysis, the optimization decreases the
average network energy consumption up to an order of
magnitude. For the prototype, the optimal beacon transmission
rate is 3.7 Hz, when network scanning is performed with 2
minutes intervals.

I. INTRODUCTION
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are a relatively new
family of ad hoc networks [1]. They are developed for low
data rate monitoring in home, outdoor and industrial
environments [2]. WSN nodes combine wireless
communication, sensor elements and application computing
with ultra-low energy consumption, size and cost. Nodes are
autonomous and they operate without any kind of
maintenance. Nodes are powered by tiny batteries for months
to years, or they scavenge energy from environment [3].
The energy consumption in WSN nodes is typically
dominated by transceiver circuitry [4]. Thus, energy
conservation requires the minimizing of the radio transmitting
and receiving times (duty cycle) while meeting the delay and
throughput requirements [5]. Radio transmissions and
receptions on the shared wireless channel are controlled by a
Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol. Time slotted MAC
protocols are the most energy efficient due to small idle
listening time [6], [7]. Data is exchanged periodically using
either contention based or dedicated assignment channel
access, while the rest of time radios are in a sleep mode.
Dynamic WSN with multi-hop data routing needs network
maintenance information exchange between nodes. In this
paper, this maintenance traffic is generally denoted as
beacons. Especially, time slotted protocols utilize beacon
transmissions at the beginning of a data exchange period for
scheduling transmissions, obtaining time synchronization, and
informing node status. Beacons are also employed when
associating or leaving a network. In network scanning, nodes
actively search new neighbors by listening beacons on the
wireless channel.
At best, time slotted protocols can reduce the duty cycle
significantly, reaching far below 1%. In practice, the duty
cycle is higher because of network scanning and for reducing
data transfer delays. In very low data rate WSNs, the duty
cycle is reduced by extending the sleep times between data
exchange periods. This usually reduces the beacon
transmission rate, but increases the required network scanning
time and energy proportionally. The network scanning may
consume energy equal to the transmission of thousands of data
packets. Hence, techniques for controlling the network
scanning energy are very important.
This paper proves that a significant energy reduction is
obtained by optimizing the beacon transmission rate.
Furthermore, the transmission of additional beacons during
node sleep time for reducing the network scanning time is
proposed.
This paper is focused on ad-hoc networks with
homogeneous nodes. The analysis employs TUTWSN
prototype power measurements and energy models. Yet,
results are general and applicable for different time slotted
WSNs, such as Sensor-MAC (S-MAC) [5], the Timeout-MAC
(T-MAC) [8], and IEEE 802.15.4 Low Rate Wireless Personal
Area Network (LR-WPAN) standard [9].
To the best of our knowledge, there is no previous work
that considers the effect of beacon transmission rate on time
slotted WSN energy consumption.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2
presents the classification of energy consumptions in the
MAC layer. The TUTWSN prototype platform with power
consumption analysis and radio energy models is presented in
Section 3. The network maintenance power consumption is
analyzed in Section 4. The optimization model for beacon
transmission rate is presented in Section 5. Section 6
concludes the paper.

II. WSN ENERGY CLASSIFICATION
For reasoning the effect of the beacon transmission rate on
node energy consumption, we first divide the energy
consumed by wireless communication into three energy
classes:

node start-up,
network maintenance, and
data exchange.

These are presented in Fig. 1. The node start-up energy
consists of network scanning for detecting nodes in a range,
and network association for connecting a node to a network.
The network maintenance and data exchange operations are
executed after the start-up period during the node lifetime.
The network maintenance energy consists of beacon
transmissions and receptions (beacon exchange), network
scanning, and possible re-associations. This periodic scanning
is needed in dynamic WSNs with node failures, mobility, and
radio environment changes. The data exchange energy is
consumed by payload data transmissions and receptions, and
MAC signaling, such as acknowledgement.
As node lifetimes are expected to be from months to years,
the start-up energy is negligible small compared to the total
node energy consumption. Furthermore, we assume that data
exchange operations have a higher priority than beacon
transmissions. Thus, data exchange energy is not affected by
the beacon transmission rate. Hence, we can focus on
analyzing the network maintenance energy.
A. Network Maintenance Power
Network maintenance operations are performed
continuously during the entire network lifetime. Hence, we
consider the energy consumption over 1 s period of operation,
which equals to the average power consumption. The
evaluation of power instead of energy is more convenient due
to the independence of time.
The average network maintenance power P
m
is defined as
the sum of the network scanning power P
ns
and the beacon
exchange power P
b
. The network scanning power P
ns
depends
on the energy of a single scanning procedure E
ns
, and the
network scanning interval T
s
. T
s
determines the maximum
delay for detecting changes in a network neighborhood.
Shorter T
s
improves network robustness, but also increases the
average network scanning power consumption. A long time
average network scanning power is obtained by

ns
ns
s
E
P
T
= . (1)

Beacons are transmitted at rate f
btx
and received at f
brx
.
Beacons may be received from multiple neighbors, which
increases f
brx
proportionally. The average power consumed by
the beacon exchange is

b tx btx rx br
P E f E f = +
x
. (2)

The network maintenance power in a practical case is
estimated by combining this theoretical analysis with the
measurements and energy models of a real TUTWSN
prototype platform.

III. TUTWSN PROTOTYPE PLATFORM
TUTWSN is a low energy WSN developed at Tampere
University of Technology. TUTWSN design goal has been
minimized radio duty cycle, while maintaining the data
transfer requirements of applications. Despite of low duty
cycle operation, TUTWSN achieves rapid and low energy
network start-up and maintenance operations.
The TUTWSN prototype platform is an improved version
of the first version presented in [10]. The platform is
controlled by Xemics XE88LC02 MicroController Unit
(MCU), which integrates a CoolRisc 816 processor core with
a 16-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC), 22 KB program
memory and 1 KB data memory. An external 8 KB EEPROM
provides a non-volatile data storage. In the prototype, ADC
samples data from a temperature sensor, but nearly any type of
sensor may be used.
For wireless communication, the platform utilizes a
NordicVLSI nRF2401 2.4 GHz radio with selectable 250 kbps
or 1 Mbps transmission data rate. The radio has integrated
pattern recognition and CRC functions, which simplify
communication protocol processing in MCU. In addition, the
radio has an interface for low speed MCU, which consists of
data buffers for transmission and reception. Radio is used with
256-bit fixed length packets, which enables the use of the
higher 1 Mbps transmission data rate improving overall
energy efficiency.
The prototype is powered by a 0.22 F super-capacitor and a
linear voltage regulator. An interface for an ambient energy
scavenging circuit is also available.
The prototype platform is implemented on a 31 mm x 23
mm x 5 mm sized printed circuit board presented in Fig. 2.
The top side of the board contains the radio, antenna,
EEPROM, sensor, and connectors. MCU and regulator are
mounted on the bottom side.
N
o
d
e

s
t
a
r
t
-
u
p

e
n
e
r
g
y
:
N
e
t
w
o
r
k

s
c
a
n
n
i
n
g
N
e
t
w
o
r
k

a
s
s
o
c
i
a
t
i
o
n Data exchange energy:
Upper layer payload data and
acknowledgement transmissions and receptions
Beacon transmissions and receptions
Periodic network scanning for updating network
topology information
Node lifetime Start-up period
time

Fig. 1. The classification of the WSN node energy consumption.

TABLE II
SYMBOL DESCRIPTIONS AND MEASURED OR DEFINED VALUES FOR
TUTWSN PROTOTYPE PLATFORM.
Symbol Description Defined value
L
f
frame length 256 bits
R radio data rate 1 Mbps
T
i
idle listening time 100 s
T
st
transmitter and receiver start-up time 250 s

Symbol Description Measured value
P
tx
power consumption in TX mode,
MCU in active mode
0 dBm: 30.68 mW
-20 dBm: 20.07 mW
P
rx
power consumption in RX mode,
MCU in active mode
44.98 mW
E
l
energy for exchanging 1 bit data
between transceiver and MCU
2.3 nJ/bit
Antenna
EEPROM
Temperature
sensor
Programming
connector
Test pins
Radio
MCU Regulator
Top side Bottom side
0 10 20 mm

Fig. 2. TUTWSN prototype platform.
A. TUTWSN Prototype Power Analysis
The static power consumptions of the main TUTWSN
platform components are measured at different operation
modes. The supply voltage used in the measurements was 2.4
V. The results are presented in Table I. The minimum power
consumption is 17 W, when all components are in the sleep
mode. The maximum power consumption is 46.08 mW, when
the radio is in the receive mode (RX). The MCU power
consumption is 1.33 mW at 1.8 MIPS processing speed.
Clearly, the radio is the most power consuming component,
taking nearly 33 times the power of MCU.
B. TUTWSN Radio Energy Models
Energy consumption in TUTWSN prototype is modeled
according to the MAC protocol procedures (reception,
transmission, and scanning) and the frame formats. While the
frame formats for the procedures vary, the radio frame in
TUTWSN has a fixed length of 256 bits. The symbols with
defined or measured values are presented in Table II. Also, the
symbols defined in the equations are summarized in Table III.
A frame transmission consists of data loading from MCU to
the radio data buffer, a radio start-up transient and a data
transmission. During the start-up transient, the radio power
consumption is approximated to be equal to the transmission
mode (TX) power consumption. Thus, the frame transmission
energy E
tx
is modeled as

tx
f
st l f tx
P
R
L
T E L E

+ = +
. (3)
The resulting energy consumptions are E
tx(high)
= 16.11 J at
the higher transmission power (0 dBm) and E
tx(low)
= 10.74 J
at the lower transmission power (-20 dBm). This equals to 63
nJ and 42 nJ per transmitted physical layer data bit at the
higher and lower transmission power, respectively.
The frame reception begins with the radio start-up transient.
The radio remains in the RX mode until a frame has been
received including the idle listening time due to TDMA
synchronization inaccuracy. Then, a received frame is loaded
from the radio to MCU. The frame reception energy E
rx
is
modeled as

f
rx st i rx f l
L
E T T P L
R

= + + +

E
. (4)

The resulting energy consumption per received packet is E
rx
=
27.85 J. This yields 109 nJ per received physical layer data
bit.
The network scanning begins with the radio start-up
transient. To be able to receive beacons from all neighboring
nodes, the radio is in the RX mode for the whole beacon
interval, which is an inverse of the beacon transmission rate
f
btx
. Each received beacon is loaded from the radio to MCU,
TABLE III
SYMBOL DESCRIPTIONS FOR ENERGY CONSUMPTION MODELS.
Symbol Description
E
tx
packet transmission energy (256-bit packet)
E
rx
packet reception energy (256-bit packet)
E
ns
network scanning energy
E
s
node start-up energy
f
btx
beacon transmission energy
f
brx
beacon reception energy
P
m
average network maintenance power consumption
P
ns
average power consumption for network scanning
P
b
average power consumption for beacon transmissions
T
s
average network scanning interval
TABLE I
MEASURED TUTWSN PROTOTYPE POWER CONSUMPTION.
MCU ADC Sensor Radio Power (mW)
active active active RX 46.08
active active active TX (0 dBm) 31.78
active active active TX (-20 dBm) 21.17
active active active data loading 3.76
active active active sleep 2.45
active active off sleep 2.41
active off off sleep 1.35
sleep off off sleep 0.017

and an association request may be transmitted. These energies
are difficult to estimate, but they are negligibly small
compared to the channel reception energy and therefore
ignored in the model. Thus, the network scanning energy E
ns

can be modeled as

1
ns st rx
btx
E T P
f

= +

. (5)

When f
btx
is set to 1 Hz, the resulting network scanning energy
is E
ns
= 44.99 mJ. This equals to the energy of 2793 beacon
transmissions at the higher transmission power. Clearly, the
effect of scanning on the whole energy consumption of a node
is very significant, and becomes more critical at slower
beacon transmission rates.

IV. EFFECT OF THE BEACON TRANSMISSION RATE ON POWER
CONSUMPTION
The network maintenance power consumption is estimated
for the TUTWSN prototype platform by combining the energy
models with the real measurements. In this way, we are able to
separate the network maintenance power from other power
classes and obtain results that are independent on the
TUTWSN MAC protocol.
The network scanning, beacon transmission and network
maintenance powers in the function of the beacon
transmission rate f
btx
are presented in Fig. 3. T
s
and f
brx
are
fixed to 500 s and 0.25 Hz. The figure clearly shows how the
network scanning power P
ns
decreases rapidly as f
btx
increases.
A decrease from 900 W to 90 W is obtained as the beacon
transmission rate increases from 0.1 Hz to 1 Hz.
In contrast to P
ns
, the beacon transmission power P
b
can be
minimized by minimizing f
btx
. P
b
decreases from 269 W to
26.9 W as f
btx
decreases from 10 Hz to 1 Hz. As shown in the
figure, the network maintenance power P
m
has the minimum
(98 W) at the 1.9 Hz beacon transmission rate. At low
beacon transmission rates below 1 Hz, P
m
typically doubles as
the beacon transmission rate halves. The effect is reversed at
high beacon transmission rates above 10 Hz.
Next, we consider the effect of the network scanning
interval on network maintenance power consumption. Clearly,
the increase of network scanning interval reduces the power
for network scanning and shifts the P
m
minimum to lower
beacon transmission rates. This is plotted in Fig. 4, where P
m

varies with f
b
, while T
s
equals to 20 s, 100 s, and 500 s. The
network scanning interval affects the maintenance power most
significantly at lower beacon transmission rates. When f
b
is 1
Hz, P
m
increases from 137 W to 2.3 mW as T
s
decreases
from 500 s to 20 s. Next, we will determine optimal beacon
transmission rate in respect of the network scanning interval.
V. BEACON TRANSMISSION RATE OPTIMIZATION
An optimal beacon transmission rate (f
btx
*
) is determined by
minimizing the network maintenance power with respect to
the beacon transmission rate. The whole network maintenance
power can be summarized as

1
rx
m st tx btx rx
s btx
P
P T E f E
T f

= + + +

brx
f . (6)

It can be shown that there exists a unique minimum at f
btx
*
that
is obtained by setting P
m
/f
btx
= 0 in (6). This yields

* rx
btx
tx s
P
f
E T
=
. (7)

An optimal beacon transmission rate is determined by a
network parameter (scanning interval) T
s
, and the radio
parameters E
tx
and P
rx
. Fig. 5 presents the variation of f
btx
*

with T
s
. For the TUTWSN prototype platform, the optimal
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
0.1 1 10 100
f
b
(Hz)
P
m

(
W
)
Beacon transmission power
Network scanning power
Network maintenance power

Fig. 3. Beacon exchange, network scanning and network maintenance
power consumptions as a function of beacon transmission rate (T
s
= 500
s, f
brx
= 0.25 Hz).
100
1000
10000
0.1 1 10 100
f
btx
(Hz)
P
m

(
W
)
= 20 s
= 100 s
= 500 s
T
s
T
s
T
s

Fig. 4. Network maintenance power in function of beacon transmission rate
with different network scanning intervals (f
brx
= 0.25 Hz).

beacon transmission rate increases from 1.3 Hz to 12.9 Hz, as
T
s
decreases from 1000 s to 10 s.

VI. CONCLUSIONS
The estimations and measurements with the TUTWSN
prototype platform depict that the network maintenance power
ranges from below 100 W to several milliwatts, for which
the beacon transmission rate has the most significant effect.
To enable WSN operation solely from ambient energy, a node
power consumption should be in the order of 200 W [11].
Hence, the optimization of the beacon transmission rate is
critical.
The optimal beacon transmission rate is a function of three
parameters: the network scanning interval, beacon frame
transmission energy and radio power consumption in a RX
mode. For the TUTWSN prototype, the optimal beacon
transmission rate with a typical temperature sensing
application and quite stable network with 120 s network
scanning interval is 3.7 Hz. For a highly dynamic network
with 20 s network scanning interval, the optimal beacon
transmission rate is about 10 Hz.
The beacon rate optimisation results of this paper are not
dependent on the data exchange interval. Therefore, we
propose the use of additional beacons in the middle of the data
exchange interval during idle periods. This lowers the energy
consumption at new nodes scanning for a network and at
existing nodes that detect changes in the network
neighborhood. The utilized optimization function does not
consider collisions on the RF channel, which become
noteworthy at higher beacon transmission rates and dense
networks. Hence, we propose using a separate network
signalling channel for beacon transmissions.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
10 100 1000
T
s
(s)
f
b
t
x
*

(
H
z
)

Fig. 5. Energy optimal beacon transmission rate in function of network
scanning interval.
The findings of this paper are generic and can be applied on
at least LR-WPAN standard, and S-MAC and T-MAC
protocols. Especially for LR-WPAN, the proposed additional
beacons transmitted during the coordinator inactive period
would effectively reduce the network scanning time when
over 1 s beacon intervals are used.

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[9] Wireless Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY)
Specifications for Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-
WPANS), IEEE Std 802.15.4-2003 edition.
[10] M. Kohvakka, M. Hnnikinen and T. Hmlinen, Wireless sensor
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PUBLICATION 6
M. Kohvakka, M. Kuorilehto, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, Performance
Analysis of IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee for Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Network Ap-
plications, in Proceedings of the 3rd ACM International Workshop on Performance
Evaluation of Wireless Ad Hoc, Sensor, and Ubiquitous Networks (PE-WASUN2006),
Torremolinos, Spain, Oct. 6, 2006, pp. 4857.
ACM, 2006. Reprinted with Permission.
Performance Analysis of IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee
for Large-Scale Wireless Sensor Network Applications
Mikko Kohvakka
Tampere University of
Technology
Institute of Digital and
Computer Systems
33720 Tampere, Finland
+358 3 3115 4702
mikko.kohvakka@tut.fi
Mauri Kuorilehto
Technology
Computer Systems
+358 3 3115 4567
mauri.kuorilehto@tut.fi
Marko Hnnikinen
Technology
Computer Systems
+358 3 3115 3837
marko.hannikainen@tut.fi
Timo D. Hmlinen
Technology
Computer Systems
+358 3 3115 3385
timo.d.hamalainen@tut.fi

ABSTRACT
This paper analyses the performance of IEEE 802.15.4 Low-Rate
Wireless Personal Area Network (LR-WPAN) in a large-scale
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) application. To minimize the
energy consumption of the entire network and to allow adequate
network coverage, IEEE 802.15.4 peer-to-peer topology is selected,
and configured to a beacon-enabled cluster-tree structure. The
analysis consists of models for CSMA-CA mechanism and MAC
operations specified by IEEE 802.15.4. Network layer operations in
a cluster-tree network specified by ZigBee are included in the
analysis. For realistic results, power consumption measurements on
an IEEE 802.15.4 evaluation board are also included. The
performances of a device and a coordinator are analyzed in terms of
power consumption and goodput. The results are verified with
simulations using WIreless SEnsor NEtwork Simulator
(WISENES). The results depict that the minimum device power
consumption is as low as 73 W, when beacon interval is 3.93 s,
and data are transmitted at 4 min intervals. Coordinator power
consumption and goodput with 15.36 ms CAP duration and 3.93 s
beacon interval are around 370 W and 34 bits/s.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
C.2.1 [Computer-Communication Networks]: Network
Architecture and Design wireless communication.
General Terms
Measurement, Performance, Standardization, Theory
Keywords
Wireless networks, IEEE 802.15.4, ZigBee, WPAN, cluster-tree,
performance evaluation, simulation.
1. INTRODUCTION
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are fully autonomous self-
configuring ad-hoc networks. Typical emerging applications are
monitoring and control in home, office, industrial, and outdoor
environments. WSNs may consist of thousands of tiny and very
energy constrained nodes, which communicate wirelessly with each
other, sense their environment, and share collaborative tasks. Due to
the large number of nodes, frequent battery replacements are
difficult. Hence, the network lifetime should be in the order of years
requiring a very careful design of communication protocols,
algorithms, and hardware platforms.
The Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) Working Group
was initially focused on creating the IEEE 802.15.1 standard for
Physical (PHY) and Medium Access Control (MAC) layers based
on Bluetooth technology in 1999 [11]. In the following year the
Working Group formed two other subgroups, firstly IEEE 802.15.3
for high-speed WPAN [12] for multimedia applications, and in
December 2000 IEEE 802.15.4 low-rate WPAN (LR-WPAN) [13]
providing low-complexity, low-cost and low-power wireless
connectivity among inexpensive devices [2]. Thus, LR-WPAN has
been one of the most foreseen technologies enabling WSNs.
ZigBee [16] is an open specification for low-power wireless
networking, which complements the LR-WPAN standard with
network and security layers, and application profiles. For security
and reliability, ZigBee supports access control lists, packet freshness
timers, and 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Different
stack profiles are defined for home control, building automation,
and plant control applications. The first version of ZigBee
specification was announced in December 2004.
In this paper we present mathematical performance analysis and
simulations of IEEE 802.15.4 LR-WPAN in a large-scale WSN
application with up to 1560 nodes. The network is formed in a
beacon enabled cluster-tree topology according to ZigBee
specification [16]. While few studies considering only star networks
exist, this is the first paper that covers a cluster-tree topology
enabling low energy and large area implementations.
The performance of a device and a coordinator are analyzed in
terms of the average power consumption and throughput. The
analysis results are verified by simulations with WIreless SEnsor
NEtwork Simulator (WISENES) [4]. These performance models
form a framework that can be used as such for designing real LR-
WPAN deployments.
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 discusses the state of
related research on LR-WPAN performance analysis. Section 3
gives an overview of the LR-WPAN standard. The analyzed
application, network topology, and hardware platform are presented
in Section 4. Section 5 presents the models for required MAC
operations. The analysis results are given in Section 6 followed by
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48
the simulations results in Section 7. Finally, Section 8 concludes this
paper.
2. RELATED RESEARCH
According to our best knowledge, there exist only few articles that
analyze mathematically or simulate the performance of IEEE
802.15.4. The performance of IEEE 802.15.4 in a star network with
100 nodes is analyzed in [1]. The paper contains a compact
mathematical analysis of average power consumption and
transmission failure rate. The analysis is complemented with real
measurements of steady state powers and transient energy, and
switch times from a standard compliant evaluation board. A special
contribution is bit error rate measurements with two evaluation
boards connected through a set of calibrated attenuators. The
operational analysis considers mainly the effect of path loss and
packet size on energy consumption.
In [6], the performance of IEEE 802.15.4 is analyzed for medical
sensor body area networking. The analysis considers quite
extensively a very low data rate star network with 10 body
implanted sensors transmitting data 1 to 40 times per hour. The
analysis focuses on the effect of a crystal tolerance, a frame size,
and the usage of IEEE 802.15.4 Guaranteed Time Slots (GTS) on a
node lifetime. For analyzing the standard performance in WSN
applications, further analysis with larger and more complex network
topologies and other IEEE 802.15.4 MAC parameters is required.
In [5], the performance simulations of IEEE 802.15.4 in a star
network are presented. The network consists of 49 nodes configured
to IEEE 802.15.4 beacon-enabled mode. The evaluation considers
latency and energy with different amounts of background traffic.
Also, the performance of IEEE 802.15.4 GTS and beacon tracking
are simulated. Still, the applicability of the results for WSN
applications is insufficient, since larger network sizes with cluster-
tree network topologies are required.
3. IEEE 802.15.4 OVERVIEW
An IEEE 802.15.4 network may operate in one of three Industrial,
Scientific, Medical (ISM) frequency bands, presented in Table 1.
The 2.4 GHz frequency band is the most potential for large-scale
WSN applications, since the high radio data rate reduces the frame
transmission time and thus the energy per transmitted and received
bit. Also, network scalability is improved, since a higher number of
nodes may communicate with each other within a given time period.
In addition, the band is available in most countries worldwide.
Hence, in this analysis we focus on the 2.4 GHz band.
IEEE 802.15.4 defines three types of logical devices, a Personal
Area Network (PAN) coordinator, a coordinator and a device. The
PAN coordinator is the primary controller of PAN, which initiates
the network and operates often as a gateway to other networks. Each
PAN must have exactly one PAN coordinator. Coordinators
collaborate with each other for executing data routing and network
self-organization operations. Devices do not have data routing
capability and can communicate only with coordinators.
Due to the low performance requirements of devices, they may be
implemented with very simple and low-cost platforms. The standard
designates these low complexity platforms as Reduced Function
Devices (RFD). Platforms with the complete set of MAC services
are referred to as Full Function Devices (FFD).
3.1 Network Topology
The standard supports two network topologies, star and peer-to-
peer, which are presented in Figure 1. In the star topology,
communication is controlled by a PAN coordinator that operates as
a network master, while devices operate as slaves and communicate
only with the PAN coordinator. The devices may be either FFDs or
RFDs. This single-hop network is most suitable for delay critical
applications, where a large network coverage area is not required.
A peer-to-peer topology allows mesh type of networks, where any
coordinator may communicate with any other coordinator within its
range, and have messages multi-hop routed to coordinators outside
its range. The network may contain also RFDs as devices. This
enables the formation of complex self-organizing network
topologies. Peer-to-peer topologies are suitable for industrial and
commercial applications, where efficient self-configurability and
large coverage are important. A disadvantage is the increased
network latency due to the message relaying.
One special type of peer-to-peer topology is a cluster-tree network,
which is highly static once it has been formed. The network consists
of clusters, each having a coordinator as a cluster head and multiple
devices as leaf nodes. A PAN coordinator initiates the network and
serves as the root. The network is formed by parent-child
relationships, where new nodes associate as children with the
existing coordinators. A PAN coordinator may instruct a new child
FFD to become the cluster head of a new cluster. Otherwise, the
child operates as a device. Node operations in a cluster-tree network
are specified by ZigBee [16].
An example of the cluster-tree network structure is presented in
Figure 2. This well-defined structure simplifies multi-hop routing
and allows considerable energy savings; each node maintains the
synchronization of data exchanges with its parent coordinator only.
The rest of time, nodes may save energy in a sleep mode. This is not
possible in the mesh peer-to-peer networks, where coordinators
need to receive continuously to be able to receive data from any
node in the range. A disadvantage is that a coordinator failure may
cause a large amount of orphaned child and grand-child nodes and
energy consuming re-associations.
3.2 Medium Access Control (MAC) Layer
The MAC protocol in IEEE 802.15.4 can operate on both beacon-
enabled and non-beacon modes. In the non-beacon mode, a protocol
is a simple Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance
(CSMA-CA). This requires a constant reception of possible
PAN Coordinator FFD RFD
Star Topology Peer-to-Peer Topology

Figure 1. Star and peer-to-peer topology examples.
Table 1. IEEE 802.15.4 frequency bands and data rates.
Band 868 MHz 915 MHz 2.4 GHz
Region EU, Japan US Worldwide
Channels 1 10 16
Data rate 20 kbps 40 kbps 250 kbps

49
incoming data. The power saving features that are critical in WSN
applications are provided by the beacon-enabled mode. Hence, we
concentrate on the beacon-enabled mode from now on.
In the beacon-enabled mode, all communications are performed in a
superframe structure presented in Figure 3. A superframe is
bounded by periodically transmitted beacon frames, which allow
nodes to synchronize to the network. An active part of a superframe
is divided into 16 contiguous time slots that form three parts: the
beacon, Contention Access Period (CAP) and Contention-Free
Period (CFP). At the end of the superframe is an inactive period,
when nodes may enter to a power saving mode. The Beacon Interval
(I
B
) and the active Superframe Duration (SD) are adjustable by
Beacon Order (BO) and Superframe Order (SO) parameters as
2
BO
B
I aBaseSuperframeDuration =
, (1)
2
SO
SD aBaseSuperframeDuration = , (2)
where aBaseSuperframeDuration = aBaseSlotDuration x
aNumSuperframeSlots, and 0 14 SO BO .
aBaseSlotDuration equals to 60 radio symbols resulting 15.36 ms
minimum SD (SO = 0) at the 2.4 GHz band with 16 superframe
slots. Hence, I
B
and SD may be between 15.36 ms and 251.7 s. The
superframe structure is maintained by the PAN coordinator. In
cluster-tree networks, all coordinators may transmit beacons in order
to maintain the synchronization with their children.
3.2.1 Contention Access Period
In addition to the beacon, CAP is a mandatory part of a superframe.
Coordinators are required to listen to the channel the whole CAP to
detect and receive any data from their child nodes. On the other
hand, the child nodes may only transmit data and receive an
optional acknowledgement (ACK) when needed, which increases
their energy efficiency.
Downlink data from a coordinator to its child node are sent
indirectly requiring totally four transmissions. The availability of
pending data is signaled in beacons. First, a child requests the
pending data by transmitting a data request message. The
coordinator responds to the request with ACK frame, and then
transmits the requested data frame. Finally, the child transmits ACK
if the data frame was successfully received.
IEEE 802.15.4 utilizes a modified slotted CSMA-CA scheme during
the CAP, except for ACK frames that are transmitted without carrier
sensing. The scheme is modified from the IEEE 802.11 DCF
protocol [10]. The major differences to the legacy CSMA-CA are
that a channel is not sensed during a backoff time, and that a new
random backoff is selected if a channel is busy during the carrier
sensing. In dense networks this may lead to inefficient channel
utilization and long channel access delay [3]. The protocol is prone
to hidden node collisions, when two nodes outside the range of each
other are transmitting data to a common coordinator. The protocol
does not provide any type of protection against the hidden node
problem [3].
For accessing a channel, each node maintains three variables: NB,
BE and CW. NB is the number of CSMA-CA backoff attempts for
the current transmission, initialized to 0. BE is the backoff exponent,
which defines the number of backoff periods a node should wait
before attempting a Clear Channel Assessment (CCA). CW is the
contention window length, which defines the number of consecutive
backoff periods a channel needs to be silent prior to a transmission.
The backoff period length (t
BOP
) is defined as 0.32 ms in the 2.4
GHz band. Default values for BE and CW are 3 and 2, respectively.
Before a transmission, a node locates a backoff period boundary by
the received beacon, waits for a random number of backoff periods
(0 to 2
BE
1), and senses the channel by CCA for CW times. If the
channel is idle, a transmission begins. Otherwise NB and BE are
increased by one and the operation returns to the random delay
phase. When NB exceeds macMaxCSMABackoffs (default is 4),
transmission terminates with a channel access failure. A node may
try to retransmit the frame at maximum aMaxFrameRetries (default
is 3) times before MAC issues a frame transmission failure.
The standard defines that each frame is followed by an interframe
spacing. The spacing depends on the length of a MAC Protocol
Data Unit (MPDU). A Long InterFrame Spacing (LIFS) defined as
640 s is used for frames containing longer than 18 B MPDU.
Shorter frames are followed by a Short InterFrame Spacing (SIFS)
defined as 192 s.
3.2.2 Contention-Free Period
CFP is an optional feature of IEEE 802.15.4 MAC, in which a
channel access is performed in allocated time slots. A node may
reserve bandwidth for delay critical applications by requesting GTS
from a PAN Coordinator. The GTS allocations are signaled in
beacon frames. In star networks, a device may obtain better Quality-
of-Service (QoS) by the use of GTS, since contention and collisions
are avoided. Yet, the applicability of GTS in peer-to-peer or cluster-
tree networks is poor, since GTS may be used only between the
PAN Coordinator and its one-hop neighbors. Moreover, inter-
coordinator collisions degrade QoS in GTS, since no collision
avoidance mechanism is used in CFP.
PAN Coordinator Cluster Coordinator Device
Cluster

Figure 2. Analyzed cluster-tree network topology.
Beacon
CAP CFP Inactive
G
T
S
G
T
S
SD
BI

Figure 3. Superframe structure in beacon-enabled mode.
50
3.2.3 BatteryLifeExtension
IEEE 802.15.4 supports a BatteryLifeExtension option, which may
reduce coordinator energy consumption. When the option is
selected, BE is initialized to 2, and any transaction should begin
during macBattLifeExtPeriods backoff periods (default is 6 equaling
1.92 ms at 2.4 GHz band) after the beacon. This allows the
coordinator to sleep the rest of CAP and conserve energy. In
practice, only one uplink or downlink transmission attempt is
possible per CAP, which significantly reduces available throughput.
In addition, a collision probability is high due to the shorter backoff
time. Thus, this option is suitable only for small and very low data
rate networks.
4. ANALYSIS SETUP
4.1 Network Parameters
We analyze IEEE 802.15.4 MAC performance in a large-scale
WSN application. In order to obtain the lowest power consumption,
a cluster-tree type beacon-enabled network topology is selected. In
addition, CFP option is not used and all data exchanges are
performed during CAP. Thus, the CAP length (t
CAP
) is approximated
to be equal to the superframe length. In the following analysis SO
and BO are varied between 0 - 2 and 6 - 10, resulting 15.36 ms -
61.44 ms CAP length, and 0.96 s - 15.73 s beacon interval. This
setting corresponds to a very low duty cycle operation.
The selected cluster-tree network, where each coordinator has three
child coordinators (n
C
) and 12 devices (n
D
) is presented in Figure 2.
The depth of the network is four resulting totally 1560 nodes. Each
node transmits data frames, which are routed through the network to
a PAN coordinator (uplink data). The transmission interval of data
frames is normalized to the beacon interval. In the analysis, the
uplink transmission interval is varied between 1 and 100 beacon
intervals. For updating data gathering settings, the PAN coordinator
broadcasts downlink data frames to the network at the intervals of
100 beacons. In the beacon-enabled network, the broadcasts are
implemented by indirect unicast transmissions for each parent-child
link.
Inter-cluster interferences are minimized by interlacing superframes
of neighboring nodes. According to ZigBee [16] specification time
is divided into periodic slots, the length of which equals to the
superframe length. During start-up each coordinator performs a
passive scan for searching neighbors and free slots for periodic
superframes. A slot is selected randomly from founded free slots for
reducing collisions with sibling coordinators. Due to the interlacing,
inter-cluster interferences are ignored in the analysis.
In the following analysis, each node transmits 6 B sensing item (L
I
)
consisting of 16-bit sensor sample and 32-bit timestamp. In addition,
each data frame contains 2 B application layer, 8 B network layer, 9
B data link layer, and 8 B physical layer headers. A 33 B short
frame length (L
S
) is used for transmitting sensing items separately
from devices to coordinators, and for transmitting downlink data.
Coordinators aggregate received sensing items, and utilize 105 B
long frames (L
L
) containing totally 12 sensing items. Data
aggregation requires the use of a 6 B aggregate header. ACK frame
length (L
A
) is 11 B.
4.2 Reference Hardware Platform
To obtain realistic results, the IEEE 802.15.4 performance analysis
is combined with the real measurements of a commercial IEEE
802.15.4 compliant Chipcon CC2420EM/EB [8] transceiver
evaluation board. To estimate the energy consumption of a low
power MAC protocol processor, the power consumption of a
Microchip PIC18LF8720 [9] nanoWatt series microcontroller is also
measured. The measurements include static power consumptions
and switch times between various operation modes. The results are
presented in Table 2 and Table 3.
5. PERFORMANCE MODELS
The LR-WPAN protocol is modeled according to IEEE 802.15.4
standard and ZigBee specification. All the significant run time
operations are defined for a device and a coordinator operating in a
cluster-tree network by analytical models. The models are presented
in Table 4. Due to the long expected network lifetime, models
concerning node start-up operations are outside of this analysis.
The models are grouped into CSMA mechanism (contention
models), MAC layer operations (MAC operation models), and node
operations. Realistic results are obtained by combining these models
with the measurements from the hardware platform.
5.1 Contention Models
The contention models are used for analyzing the CSMA-CA
mechanism including backoff time, collisions and retransmissions.
For simplification, the slotted structure is not considered in the
equations. Hence, the following equations utilize CAP more
efficiently than in reality, giving also slightly higher performance.
The following models are based on the analysis of IEEE 802.15.4 in
a star network, presented in [6]. The utilized parameters and their
values are summarized in Table 5.
Table 2. Measured platform power consumptions.
Symbol MCU mode Radio mode Power @ 3 V
Active TX (-1 dBm) 45.0 mW
P
TX

P
RX
Active RX 56.5 mW
P
CCA
Active CCA 55.8 mW
P
I
Active Idle 2.79 mW
P
MCU
Active Sleep 1.50 mW
P
S
Sleep Sleep 30 W
Table 3. Measured Chipcon CC2420 transient times.
Symbol Description Time (s)
t
SI
sleep to idle 970
t
IT
idle to transmit 192
t
IR
idle to receive 192
t
RT
receive to transmit 220
t
TR
transmit to receive 200
51
5.1.1 Backoff Time and Energy
The probability (q) that a single data transmission with the
consecutive ACK is detected by CCA at any time in CAP is
estimated by the RF transmission times of data and ACK frames. q
is modeled separately for short (q
S
) and long (q
L
) data frames as
,
S A
S
CAP
L L
q
t R
+
=
(3)
.
L A
L
CAP
L L
q
t R
+
=
(4)
For estimating the average CSMA backoff time and energy, we first
model the amount of data transmissions during CAP. As a uniform
cluster-tree network structure is used, the number of nodes (n
DL
)
hierarchically below an analyzed coordinator is calculated as
( )
1
1 ,
a k
a
DL C D
a
n n n
=
=
= +
(5)
where k is the network depth below the analyzed coordinator. The
devices associated directly with the coordinator are excluded. As k
increases from 1 to 4, n
DL
gets values from 39 to 1560.
The average amount of data transmissions during CAP (d) is
modeled by the number of nodes whose data is routed through the
coordinator, the number of retransmissions (u), and the interval of
uplink (I
U
) and downlink (I
D
) data transmission normalized to a
beacon interval (I
B
). For approximating the effect of indirect
communication, I
D
is divided by 2. As downlink data utilizes
flooding through the cluster tree, downlink data transmissions are
not increased proportionally to n
DL
. d is modeled separately for short
(d
S
) and long (d
L
) data frames as
( ) 2
,
D C D
S
U D
n n n
d u
I I
+
= +

(6)
.
DL S
L
U L
n L u
d
I L
=
(7)
The equations (3), (4), (6) and (7) are further used for modeling the
probability (p
C
) of a clear channel by CCA. According to [7], the
probability that two randomly deployed nodes in the range of a
coordinator have a hidden node relationship (h) is around 41%. This
affects significantly the performance of CCA, since a portion of
ongoing transmissions are not detected. With the two consecutive
CCA analyses, as specified in IEEE 802.15.4 standard, p
C
can be
modeled as
2 (1 ) 2 (1 )
(1 ) (1 )
S L
d h d h
C S L
p q q

= . (8)
In case of unsuccessful CCA, the CSMA-CA backoff algorithm is
repeated at maximum b times (macMaxCSMABackoffs, default is 4)
before declaring a channel access failure. The probability (s) of a
successful CCA with b backoff attempts, and the average number of
backoffs (r) for each frame are modeled as
1
1
(1 ) ,
a b
a
C C
a
s p p
=
=
=
(9)
1
1
(1 ) (1 )
a b
a
C C
a
r s b ap p
=
=
= +
. (10)
By combining r with average backoff time, total backoff time and
energy for each transmission attempt are estimated. The average
backoff time (t
BO
) as a function of a backoff exponent is given as
2 1
( )
2
BE
BO BOP
t BE t
= . (11)
After each unsuccessful backoff attempt, BE is incremented by one
until aMaxBE (default is 5) is reached. The total backoff time (t
BOT
)
is obtained by summing the average backoff and CCA analysis
(t
CCA
) times of each attempt. As CCA is performed twice only if the
channel is assessed to be clear on the first attempt, we approximate
Table 4. IEEE 802.15.4 operation models.
Model Symbol
Device power consumption P
DEV

Coordinator power consumption P
COOR

Maximum throughput T
MAX

Node
operation
models
Goodput G
Data frame transmission E
TXD
, t
TXD

Indirect data reception E
RXDD
, t
RXDD

ACK transmission E
TXA
, t
TXA

ACK reception E
RXA
, t
RXA

Beacon transmission E
TXB
, t
TXB

Beacon reception E
TXB
, t
TXB

MAC
operation
models
Network scanning E
NS
, t
NS

Avg. number of retransmissions u
Transmission success rate v
Contention
models
Backoff energy and time E
BOT
, t
BOT

Table 5. Utilized parameters and their values.
Symbol Parameter Value
A Sensing items transmitted in a long frame 12
BO MAC beacon order 6 - 10
h Probability of a hidden node relationship 41 %
I
D
Downlink data transmission interval (I
B
) 100
I
NS
Network scanning interval 3 h
I
U
Uplink data transmission interval (I
B
) 1 - 100
k Network depth below analyzed coordinator 1 - 4
L
A
ACK frame length 11 B
L
B
Beacon frame length 26 B
L
I
Sensing item length 6 B
L
L
Long data frame length 105 B
L
O
Data frame overhead (PHY, MAC, NWK) 25 B
L
S
Short data frame length 33 B
n
C
Number of child coordinators 3
n
D
Number of devices 12
n
DL

Number of the nodes hierarchically below a
coordinator
39 - 1560
R Radio data rate 250 kbps
SO MAC superframe order 0 - 2
t
A
ACK frame RF time 352 s
t
AW
ACK wait duration 864 s
t
BOP
Backoff period length 320 s
t
CCA
CCA analysis time 128 s
t
I
Synchronization inaccuracy 100 s
t
LIFS
Long InterFrame Spacing 640 s
t
RES
Response time for data request 19.52ms
t
SIFS
Short InterFrame Spacing 192 s
RX
The crystal tolerance of a receiving node 20 ppm
TX
The crystal tolerance of a transmitting node 20 ppm

52
that averagely 3/2 CCA analyses are performed for each backoff
attempt. Hence, the total backoff time can be modeled as
( ) ( ) ( )
1
0
3
min , .
2
a r
BOT IR CCA BO
a
t r t t t macMinBE a aMaxBE
=
=
= + + +
(12)
It is assumed that a radio is in the idle mode during the backoff time.
The idle mode is used instead of the sleep mode, since radio start-up
time from sleep mode is almost 1 ms. Hence, total backoff energy
(E
BOT
) can be approximated as
( )
3
( )
2
BOT IR CCA CCA I BOT I
E r t t P P t P = + +
. (13)
5.1.2 Collision Probability
Collisions causing transmission failures are common in a highly
loaded network. The CSMA-CA MAC is prone to two types of
collisions; collisions caused by the hidden node phenomenon, and
collisions caused by the selection of the same backoff slot with
another node. Neither of these collisions can be avoided by the
standard, since handshaking before a transmission is not used. The
probability (p
h
) that two nodes in a hidden node position transmit
simultaneously and collide is modeled as
( )
2
L L S S
h
S L
q d q d
p
d d
+
=
+
. (14)
Due to the relatively long inactive part of superframes, nodes most
probably gather data during the inactive time and start a backoff
procedure simultaneously at the beginning of CAP. Since BE is
initialized with macMinBE (default is 3) for each new transmission,
nodes randomize backoff delays using a relatively low backoff
exponent. The probability (p
d
) that two nodes select the same
backoff delay and collide can be modeled as
1
2 1
d BE
p =
. (15)
5.1.3 Retransmission Probability
For approximating the amount of traffic in CAP, we determine the
average number (C) of contenting nodes in CAP as
1 2 2
min ,1 min ,1 .
DL S
D C
U D D U C L
n L
C u n u n
I I I I n L

= + + +

(16)
For modeling the probability (p
s
) of a successful transmission, C is
combined with p
h
and p
d
as
( ) ( )
( )
1 1
S L
h d d C
s h d
p s p p
+
= . (17)
A frame is transmitted c times before declaring a transmission
failure. c is defined as aMaxFrameRetries (default is 3)+1. The
probability of a successful transmission (v) after a attempts is
( )
1
1
1
a c
a
s s
a
v p p
=
=
=
. (18)
Finally, the average number of transmission attempts per frame (u)
can be modeled as
( ) ( )
1
1
1 1
a c
a
s s
a
u v c ap p
=
=
= +
. (19)
5.2 MAC Operation Models
MAC operation models are used for analyzing energy and time
required for the transmission and reception of data, ACK and
beacon frames, and the network scanning. A frame transmission in
IEEE 802.15.4 consists of a backoff time and the actual data
transmission. The time and energy of a data transmission are
modeled separately for short (t
TXDS
, E
TXDS
) and long (t
TXDL
, E
TXDL
)
frames according to the above defined backoff models, radio
transient times and power consumptions, frame lengths, and radio
data rate (R) as
S
TXDS SI BOT IT
L
t t t t
R
= + + +
, (20)
S
TXDS SI I BOT IT TX
L
E t P E t P
R

= + + +

, (21)
L
TXDL SI BOT IT
L
t t t t
R
= + + +
, (22)
L
TXDL SI I BOT IT TX
L
E t P E t P
R

= + + +

. (23)
In indirect communication the maximum response time (t
RES
) for a
data request is 19.52 ms. Hence, the data reception time and energy
may be significantly higher than in direct communication. The
coordinator response time is assumed to be an average of t
BOT
and
t
RES
. In this analysis, indirect communication utilizes only short
frames. The time (t
RXDD
) and energy (E
RXDD
) for an indirect data
transmission after a data request are modeled as
2
RES BOT S
RXDD I LIFS
t t L
t t t
R
+
= + + +
, (24)
( )
RXDD RXDD LIFS RX LIFS I
E t t P t P = + . (25)
The ACK reception time (t
RXA
) and energy (E
RXA
) are modeled by
assuming the wait duration for ACK being a half of the maximum
allowed (t
AW
). The time and energy are modeled as
2
AW A
RXA TR SIFS
t L
t t t
R
= + + +
, (26)
( )
RXA RXA SIFS RX SIFS I
E t t P t P = + . (27)
Moreover, ACK transmission time (t
TXA
) and energy (E
TXA
) are
modeled as
2
AW A
TXA RT
t L
t t
R
= + +
, (28)
2
AW A
TXA RT TX I
t L
E t P P
R

= + +

. (29)
Due to relatively long beacon intervals, beacon reception models
consider the synchronization inaccuracy and crystal tolerances in
receiving and transmitting nodes (
RX
,
TX
). In addition, a node is
typically in a sleep mode before the beacon reception. The beacon
reception time (t
RXB
) and energy (E
RXB
) can be modeled as
( ) ,
B
RXB SI IR RX TX B I LIFS
L
t t t I t t
R
= + + + + + +
(30)
( ) ( ) .
RXB RXB SI LIFS RX SI LIFS I
E t t t P t t P = + + + (31)
Finally, beacon transmission time (t
TXB
) and energy (E
TXB
) are
modeled without CCA analysis as
53
B
TXB SI IT
L
t t t
R
= + +
, (32)
B
TXB SI I IT TX
L
E t P t P
R

= + +

. (33)
If a node looses the contact with its associated coordinator (orphans)
due to mobility or a radio link failure, it may perform either an
orphaned device realignment procedure, or reset the MAC sublayer
and re-associate with the network. In beacon-enabled networks the
latter performs best and a node performs a passive channel scan on a
single channel prior to the re-association (the operating channel of
the network is known). The energy required for the message
exchange during the association is negligible compared to network
scanning energy, and thus it is ignored in the following analysis.
The network scanning time (t
NS
) and energy (E
NS
) can be modeled as
follows:
( )
2 1 ,
BO
NS IR
t t aBaseSuperframeDuration = + + (34)
NS NS RX
E t P = . (35)
6. ANALYSIS RESULTS
In this section the performances of a LR-WPAN device and a
coordinator are analyzed in terms of power consumption, requested
throughput and achieved goodput.
6.1 Device Power Consumption
To be able to operate in a beacon-enabled IEEE 802.15.4 network, a
device receives beacons and exchanges data with a coordinator. If a
communication link to the coordinator is lost a device performs a
network scanning. The rest of time a device is in the sleep mode.
The duty cycle of a device (DC
DEV
) is calculated with beacon
receptions, uplink and downlink data exchanges, and network
scanning. The average network scanning interval (I
NS
) depends on
device speed and radio link quality. DC
DEV
can be modeled as
( )
.
TXDS RXA RXDD TXA TXDS RXA NS RXB
DEV
B U B D B NS
t t t t u t t t t
DC u
I I I I I I
+ + + +
= + + +
(36)
Similarly, the device power consumption is modeled as
( )
( ) 1 .
TXDS RXA RXDD TXA RXB
DEV
B D B
TXDS RXA NS
DEV S
U B NS
E E E E u E
P
I I I
E E E
u DC P
I I I
+ + +
= +
+
+ + +
(37)
The average device power consumption as a function of the uplink
data transmission interval with various I
B
and SO is plotted in Figure
4. The network scanning interval is approximated to be averagely 3
hours, which corresponds to a deployment with low dynamics and
good link qualities. In general, the power consumption decreases
with longer beacon and uplink data transmission intervals, since the
energy required for beacon receptions and data transmissions
diminishes. At longer beacon intervals, the network scanning power
becomes significant, since the network scanning energy increases
directly proportionally to the beacon interval. Hence, the device
power consumption with BO = 10 is higher than when BO equals to
8. Moreover, small SO increases device power consumption slightly
due to the increased contention and retransmissions.
6.2 Coordinator Power Consumption
In order to operate as a coordinator in a beacon-enabled cluster-tree
network, a node has to transmit beacons and receive the CAP for
communicating with the nodes associated with it. In addition, a
coordinator maintains synchronization with its parent by receiving
beacons from it. The activity of a coordinator depends significantly
on its location in the network and hence, the requested throughput.
As the power consumptions of radio transmission and reception
modes are quite similar, we estimate that the power consumption of
a coordinator during CAP equals to the reception mode power
consumption. The data flow to the uplink direction is performed by
long MAC payloads containing A sensing items per each frame. In
this analysis A is 12. The duty cycle of a coordinator (DC
COOR
) is
modeled as

( )( )
( )
1
.
TXDL RXA DL D TXB RXB
COOR
B U B
TXDS RXA RXDD TXA CAP NS
D B B NS
t t n n u t t
DC
I I I A
t t t t u t t
I I I I
+ + + +
= +
+ + +
+ + +
(38)
Similarly, the average power consumption of a coordinator is
( ) ( )
( )
( )
1
1 .
TXDL RXA DL D CAP RX TXB RXB
COOR
B B U B
TXDS RXA RXDD TXA NS
COOR S
D B NS
E E n n u t P E E
P
I I I I A
E E E E u t
DC P
I I I
+ + + +
= + +
+ + +
+ + +
(39)
The average coordinator power consumption as a function of the
uplink data transmission interval with various I
B
and SO is plotted in
Figure 5. As in the case of the device power consumption analysis,
the network scanning interval equals to 3 hours. With very low data
rate network, coordinator power consumption can go below 200
W. In typical applications coordinator power consumption is
between 1 and 10 mW.

10
100
1000
1 10 100
I U (Beacon intervals)
D
e
v
i
c
e

p
o
w
e
r

(
W
)
BO = 6, SO = 0 BO = 10, SO = 1
BO = 8, SO = 0 BO = 6, SO = 2
BO = 10, SO = 0 BO = 8, SO = 2
BO = 6, SO = 1 BO = 10, SO = 2
BO = 8, SO = 1

Figure 4. Device power consumption as a function of data
transmission interval (k = 3).
54
6.3 Goodput
The throughput (T
REQ
) requested by the sensor application depends
on the data transmission intervals (I
U
, I
D
), beacon interval (I
B
) and
the number of nodes (children, grand-children etc.) that route data
through the coordinator (n
DL
). The requested throughput can be
determined as:

( ) 2 1
D C D DL I
REQ
U D B
n n n n L
T
I I I
+ + +
= +

. (40)
The requested throughput as a function of the uplink data
transmission interval is plotted in Figure 6 in different depths (k) of
the network. For generalizing the results the throughput is
normalized to the beacon interval.
Furthermore, the achieved goodput (G) of a coordinator is modeled
with the requested throughput and the probability of a successful
transmission (v), as follows:
REQ
G T v = . (41)
The achieved goodput versus requested throughput with different
CAP lengths (SO) is plotted in Figure 7. The results are presented
both as a percentage of the requested throughput and in absolute
values. Again the results are normalized to the beacon interval. The
results indicate that a goodput of about 200 bits per a superframe
can be achieved with 90 % transmission success rate. As SO varies
from 0 to 2, the maximum goodputs are 302, 545 and 897 bits per a
beacon interval. These are obtained with goodput percanteges
between 33% - 55%. With higher requested throughputs, the
increased contention reduces goodput rapidly. A longer CAP length
reduces contention and improves the goodput.
Network energy efficiency is analyzed by dividing the achieved
goodput by the coordinator power consumption, which results to the
energy per successfully transmitted bit of payload data over one
hop. The achieved energy efficiency is presented in Figure 8. As
seen in the figure, the energy efficiency depends on the requested
throughput, SO, and BO. The highest energy efficiency is achieved,
as SO gets value 1, and is around 5 J/bit. The figure also shows that
for the energy efficiency, the optimization of BO and SO parameters
is very important.
7. SIMULATIONS
Provided models are verified by simulating complete ZigBee [16]
protocol stack in WISENES [4]. WISENES is targeted for large-
scale simulations of long-term WSN deployments. In WISENES,
protocols are designed in high abstraction level with Specification
and Description Language (SDL) [14]. SDL design tools allow the
use of graphical notation in the implementation [15].
The characteristics of environment and sensor nodes are defined for
0.1
1
10
100
1 10 100
I U (Beacon intervals)
C
o
o
r
d
i
n
a
t
o
r

p
o
w
e
r

(
m
W
)
BO = 6, SO = 0 BO = 6, SO = 1
BO = 6, SO = 2 BO = 8, SO = 0
BO = 8, SO = 1 BO = 8, SO = 2
BO = 10, SO = 0 BO = 10, SO = 1
BO = 10, SO = 2

Figure 5. Coordinator power as a function of data
transmission interval (k = 3).
10
100
1000
10000
100000
1 10 100
I U (Beacon Intevals)
T
R
E
Q

(
b
i
t
s
/
b
e
a
c
o
n

i
n
t
e
r
v
a
l
)
k = 4
k = 3
k = 2
k = 1

Figure 6. Requested throughput versus uplink data
transmission interval (I
U
) as k varies.
0 %
10 %
20 %
30 %
40 %
50 %
60 %
70 %
80 %
90 %
100 %
100 1000 10000
TREQ (bits/beacon interval)
G

/

T
R
E
Q
100
1000
G

(
b
i
t
s
/
b
e
a
c
o
n

i
n
t
e
r
v
a
l
)
SO = 0 SO = 1
SO = 2 SO = 0 (right axis)
SO = 1 (right axis) SO = 2 (right axis)

Figure 7. Coordinator goodput as a function of requested
throughput (k=2).
1
10
100
10 100 1000 10000
T
REQ (bits/s)
E
n
e
r
g
y

e
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
c
y

(
J
/
b
i
t
/
h
o
p
)
BO = 10, SO = 0 BO = 6, SO = 1
BO = 8, SO = 0 BO = 10, SO = 2
BO = 6, SO = 0 BO = 8, SO = 2
BO = 10, SO = 1 BO = 6, SO = 2
BO = 8, SO = 1

Figure 8. Coordinator energy efficiency as a function of
requested throughput (k = 2).
55
WISENES using eXtensible Markup Language (XML). The
detailed parameterization and the realistic modeling of wireless
transmission medium, physical phenomena, and sensor node
hardware capabilities result to accurate performance information of
simulated protocols, nodes, and networks [4]. The output
information is stored to logs, which provide detailed event
information for post-processing. During runtime, the progress of the
simulation is visualized through a graphical user interface.
7.1 Simulation Case Description
For the WISENES simulations a node platform similar to the one in
the analysis is parameterized, protocols initialized, and an
application implemented. The application implemented for the
simulations consists of three tasks: sensing, aggregation, and sink.
The sensing task on the devices measures a temperature reading
periodically (I
U
) and sends it to the parent coordinator. At the
coordinators, the buffered temperature readings from the children
are combined to an aggregate packet, which is sent to the PAN
coordinator within I
U
time intervals. At the PAN coordinator, the
sink task stores received aggregate packets. Further, it initiates the
periodic (I
D
) downlink control packets. The network topology for
the simulations is forced to follow that of analysis.
The IEEE 802.15.4 LR-WPAN MAC protocol implementation in
WISENES conforms the standard. The synchronization inaccuracy
among the nodes is balanced by a simple algorithm. The algorithm
tracks the time drift between consequent beacons and compensates
the drift with the averaged inaccuracy over ten last beacons. The
functional parameters of the MAC protocol are set by the upper
protocol layers. However, unlike specified by the standard, in the
association a child device waits for the association response for
macTransactionPersistenceTime instead of aResponseWaitTime
symbols. The latter is not valid timeout in the beacon-enabled mode
with BO values of five or higher.
In the presented simulations, WISENES ZigBee NWK
implementation uses hierarchical addressing and routing scheme
(nwkUseTreeAddrAlloc and nwkUseTreeRouting are set to 1), which
is suitable for static cluster-tree topologies [16]. Each coordinator
initiating its own superframe selects a random slot for its superframe
among the free slots found out during the passive scan. The WPAN
MAC is configured to the beacon-enabled mode with case
dependent BO and SO values. The nwkTransactionPersistenceTime
is set so that it results to 16 I
B
. Other parameters are set to the
default values of IEEE 802.15.4 standard and ZigBee specification.
7.2 Simulation Results
The simulations are done with I
U
value 60. Only one value of I
U
is
simulated due to the long running time of simulations caused by the
large-scale, long simulated network lifetime, and the amount of
different parameters. Thus, the simulations show the validity of
analysis, which extends to larger number of parameters.
7.2.1 Power Consumption
Power consumption is evaluated separately for devices and
coordinators. The simulated and analyzed power consumptions for
devices with different CAP lengths (SO) are depicted in Figure 9 as
a function of I
B
. The presented simulation results are averaged over
randomly selected nodes. Similarly, the power consumptions for
coordinators are depicted in Figure 10.
Both analysis and simulation results indicate that SO has only
minimal effect on the device power consumption. The difference
between the analysis and simulation results is mainly due to the
higher dynamics of the simulations. Furthermore, due to the longer
frames, a coordinator is able to send several frames during CAP
more likely than a device after the first successful send. The overall
average difference is 14.7%, which indicates that analysis gives
accurate results. In the coordinator power consumption the validity
of analysis results is also clearly visible. The main reasons for the
deviation are similar to those of device power consumption. The
overall average difference is 13.9 %.
7.2.2 Goodput
As the uplink data transmissions are relative to I
B
, the goodput does
not depend on the beacon interval. The simulated and analyzed
goodputs for coordinators at depth 2 (k = 4) are given in Table 6 for
different CAP lengths (SO). The simulated goodput results are
averaged over BO values from 6 to 10. As shown, the analyzed and
simulated goodputs are quite similar. Unlike in the analysis, SO has
a minor effect on the goodput in simulations. As mentioned above,
the coordinators tend to be able to send several frames during the
CAP. With larger SO this is more beneficial.
7.2.3 Considerations
In general, the analysis results correspond accurately to those
obtained from the simulations. The main reason for the slight

60
90
120
150
180
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Beacon interval (s)
D
e
v
i
c
e

p
o
w
e
r

(
W
)
Simulation, SO = 2 Analysis, SO = 2

Figure 9. Simulated and analyzed device power consumption as
a function of beacon interval.
0.1
1
10
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Beacon interval (s)
C
o
o
r
d
i
n
a
t
o
r

p
o
w
e
r

(
m
W
)

Figure 10. Simulated and analyzed coordinator power
consumption as a function of beacon interval (k = 2, I
U
= 60 I
B
).
56
deviation is the higher dynamics of the simulations. Random error
situations and the reconstruction of the complete sub-tree is
typically energy consuming. The leaf nodes may need to initiate
several scan operations due to the time required to reinitialize the
above network hierarchy. Further, as several nodes are attempting
the association simultaneously, association failures are common.
Another cause for the goodput result deviation is the saturation of
data throughput at the lower levels of the network hierarchy. This is
not considered in the analysis, but in the simulations the goodputs of
child coordinators affect to that of the parent coordinators. This is
more evident with the small values of I
U
.
Some issues considering ZigBee specification should be noted based
on the simulations. First, the hierarchical addressing and routing
scheme is prone to errors due to its assumption of static network.
The address space is exhausted, if there are nodes with random
mobility pattern. Further, during associations duplicate addresses
occur, if a coordinator removes the neighbor table entry of a device,
association of which fails. However, if the device successfully
received the association response but the acknowledgement was
lost, duplicate addresses realize.
Another typical cause for errors is the time slot selection when a
coordinator is started. The decision for the own time slot has to be
made based on the information obtained during the passive scan.
However, in dense networks the delay between the passive scan and
the starting of own superframe may be considerable. Thus, a
coordinator may not be aware of the time slots of its neighbors,
especially if a complete sub-tree is reinitialized after an error
situation. Thus, the possibility of the selection of a same time slot is
high, if the slot randomization is limited to certain subset of slots, or
if BO is small (e.g. 6) and SO large (e.g. 2).
8. CONCLUSIONS
The performance of IEEE 802.15.4 standard MAC protocol is
analyzed in a large-scale cluster-tree network. The analysis consists
of models for MAC and node operations, and CSMA mechanism.
According to the analysis, BO and SO parameters have a very
significant effect on the network performance and energy efficiency.
The results depict that minimum device power consumption is as
low as 73 W, when the beacon interval is 3.93 s, and uplink data
are transmitted at 4 min intervals. With the shortest 15.36 ms CAP
length and 3.93 s beacon interval achieved coordinator goodput and
power consumption are around 34.4 bits/s (135 bits/I
B
) and 370 W.
Simulations show that the performance models are generally
accurate, but some inaccuracy is caused by the random error
situations detected by simulations, but which are not included in the
analysis. In the future, the operation of IEEE 802.15.4 will be
modeled and simulated in a dynamic WSN with error prone nodes
and slight mobility.
9. REFERENCES
[1] Bougard, B., Catthoor, F., Daly, D.C., Chandrakasan, A.,
Dehaene, W., Energy efficiency of IEEE 802.15.4 standard in
dense wireless microsensor networks: modeling and
improvement perspectives, in Proceedings of Design,
automation and test in Europe (DATE05) (Munich, Germany,
March 7-11, 2005). IEEE, 2005, Vol. 1, 196-201.
[2] Gutierrez, J.A., Callaway, Jr, E.H., Barrett, Jr, R.L., Low-Rate
Wireless Personal Area Networks Enabling Wireless Sensors
with IEEE 802.15.4, IEEE Press, NY, 2004.
[3] Hwang, L.-J., Sheu, S.-T., Shih, Y.-Y., Cheng, Y.-C.,
Grouping strategy for solving hidden node problem in IEEE
802.15.4 LR-WPAN, in Proceedings of the 1st IEEE
international conference on Wireless Internet (WICON05)
(Budabest, Hungary, July 10-15, 2005). IEEE, 2005, 26-32.
[4] Kuorilehto, M., Kohvakka, M., Hnnikinen, M., Hmlinen,
T.D., High Level Design and Implementation Framework for
Wireless Sensor Networks, In Proceedings of Embedded
computer systems: architectures, modeling, and simulation
(SAMOS V) (Samos, Greece, July 18-20, 2005). Springer
Verlag, 2005, 384-393.
[5] Lu, G., Krishnamachari, B., Raghavendra, C.S., Performance
evaluation of the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC for low-rate low-power
wireless networks, in Proceedings of the 23rd IEEE
international Performance computing and communications
conference (IPCCC04) (Phoenix, AZ, USA, April 15-17,
2004). IEEE, 2004, 701-706.
[6] Timmons, N.F., Scanlon, W.G., Analysis of the performance
of IEEE 802.15.4 for medical sensor body area networking, in
Proceedings of the 1st IEEE international conference. on
Sensor and ad hoc communications and networks (SECON04)
(Santa Clara, CA, USA, 4-7. October, 2004). IEEE, 2004, 16-
24.
[7] Tseng, Y.-C., Ni, S.Y., Shih, E.Y., Adaptive approaches to
relieving broadcast storms in a wireless multihop mobile ad
hoc network, IEEE Trans. on Computers, 52, 5 (May 2003),
545-557.
[8] Data Sheet for CC2420 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee RF
Transceiver, available online at
http://www.chipcon.com/files/CC2420_Data_Sheet_1_3.pdf
[9] Data Sheet for PIC18LF8720 Microcontroller, available online
at: http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/
DeviceDoc/39609b.pdf
[10] IEEE Standard 802.11-1997, Wireless Lan Medium Access
Control (MAC) And Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications.
[11] IEEE Standard 802.15.1-2002, wireless medium access control
(MAC) and physical layer (PHY) specifications for wireless
personal area networks (WPANs).
(MAC) and physical layer (PHY) specifications for high rate
(MAC) and physical layer (PHY) specifications for low-rate
[14] ITU-T Recommendation Z.100, Specification and description
language (SDL), Aug 2002, available online at:
http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/studygroups/com17/languages/
[15] Telelogic TAU SDL Suite,
http://www.telelogic.com/corp/products/tau/sdl/index.cfm
[16] ZigBee Alliance Document 053474r06; ZigBee Specification,
Version 1.0, Dec 2004.
Table 6. Analyzed and simulated goodputs of a coordinator
(k = 2, I
U
= 60 I
B
).
SO
Analysis
(bits/ I
B
)
Analysis
(%)
Simulation
(bits/ I
B
)
Simulation
(%)
SO = 0 135.6 91.3 132.5 89.2
SO = 1 136.4 91.9 142.0 95.6
SO = 2 136.7 92.0 147.1 99.1

57

PUBLICATION 7
M. Kohvakka, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, Wireless Sensor Prototype
Platform, in Proceedings of the 29th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Elec-
tronics Society (IECON 2003), Virginia, USA, Nov. 26, 2003, pp. 14991504.
2003 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from the proceedings of the 29th Annual
Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society 2003.

Wireless Sensor Prototype Platform

Korkeakoulunkatu 1, FIN-33720 Tampere, Finland
Tel. +358 3 3115 2111, Fax +358 3 3115 4786
mikko.kohvakka@tut.fi, marko.hannikainen@tut.fi, timo.d.hamalainen@tut.fi

Abstract This paper presents the design and performance
measurements of a wireless sensor prototype platform
(UbiSensor). UbiSensor combines techniques used in wireless
microsensors and radio frequency identification (RFID)
resulting a wireless sensor having sensing, data processing,
network protocol execution, and energy scavenging capabilities.
The platform design is driven by energy consumption
minimization of given tasks. A commercially available
microcontroller, low power RF transceiver, and power
generator circuits are used. The measurements indicate 430 W
power consumption in typical operating conditions, using 1 Hz
sample and transmit rate, which can be scavenged by a 29 mm
2

sized solar cell or using a transponder interface circuit in a near
proximity to a RFID reader. UbiSensor performance results are
promising, but further research is required.
I. INTRODUCTION
The rapid development of low power radio frequency
circuits and microcontrollers has enabled new wireless
applications in industrial and home automation. One class of
applications is wireless microsensor networks, where
numerous wireless low power sensors enable robust and
powerful sensing even for automated control applications.
Several research projects, e.g. WINS [1] and SmartDust
[2], are aiming to integrate sensing, computing, and wireless
communication in small size and low-cost production. This
paper presents design of a new type of wireless sensor called
UbiSensor that has been developed at Tampere University of
Technology. UbiSensor combines low power radio and
microcontroller of wireless microsensors and power
management of radio frequency identification (RFID). This
results a prototype, which is able to scavenge and store
energy from operating environment. Supported sensor types
are e.g. light, temperature, acceleration, pressure, and gas
sensors.
This paper is organized as follows. The design
requirements for the UbiSensor network and platform are
presented in Section 2. Section 3 gives a detailed description
of the UbiSensor hardware platform design. Power
performance measurements are presented in Section 4.
Finally, conclusions are given and future work projected.
II. UBISENSOR DESIGN REQUIREMENTS
The aim of this research is to improve the quality of
industrial manufacturing processes by utilizing wireless
sensor networks. As one of the results, the UbiSensor has
been developed.
The design of UbiSensor platform is driven by the
requirements of sensing applications and operational
environments. Wireless sensors can be embedded and
distributed into the environment. Thus, battery replacement is
a difficult option and sensors may have to generate their
supply energy from environment. The small physical size and
light weight of a sensor are central limitations. Also, due to
the large number of sensors required, the production cost
should be low.
While wireless sensors have scarce power budged, the
performance requirements are considerable. Our UbiSensors
are required to measure 16-bit samples with 1-10 Hz sample
rates, perform different type of processing tasks on data, and
transfer processed samples through the sensor network by
executing network protocols.
The energy awareness should be incorporated into every
stage on the network design and operation. In platform
design, component selection is important and compromises
have to be made between obtained performance and power
consumption to minimize overall energy consumption of
given tasks. Dynamic power consumption is reduced by
minimizing supply voltage and operating frequency. In
software design it is important to minimize the number of
executed instructions in the given tasks. In network protocols,
energy consumption is reduced by minimizing the number
and duration of receive and transmit operations, while using
effectively power save modes. Furthermore, the entire system
must be able to dynamically adjust system performance and
make tradeoffs between energy consumption and operational
fidelity [2 - 5].
UbiSensor network is controlled by a developed
ubiquitous network protocol. The protocol design is driven
by the required support for dynamic ad-hoc routing. The
protocol also defines a gateway node, which bridges the
sensor network to outside resources. The network should be
flexible to manage, which means that no manual
configuration is needed for changes of network contents.
Sensors are mobile and can join or leave the network in ad-
hoc manner. The protocol should contain power saving
support. Furthermore, the network should provide place and
time information associated with the measurement data. The
network protocol design is outside of the scope of this paper,
and we are concentrating on the UbiSensor platform design.
III. UBISENSOR PLATFORM DESIGN
General platform architecture for a wireless microsensor
can be divided into four subsystems [4]:

Computing subsystem consisting of a Micro Controller
Unit (MCU)
Communication subsystem consisting of a short range
radio transceiver
Sensing subsystem consisting of a set of sensors and
actuators, which link the microsensor to the outside
world, and
Power subsystem consisting of a battery and a voltage
converter, which provides the system supply voltage.
The general architecture is used as a base for the
UbiSensor design. The developed UbiSensor platform
architecture is presented in Fig. 1. The central component of
the platform is MCU that includes the computing subsystem.
In addition, part of the communication and sensing
subsystems are executed on MCU. For communication, MCU
includes the network protocol and drivers for accessing the
radio. MCU also controls the Analog-to-Digital Converter
(ADC) that gathers data from sensors. The power subsystem
consists of power generators, a set of voltage converters and
a capacitor. The power subsystem provides system supply
energy, which is scavenged from operating environment.
A. Communication Subsystem
The communication subsystem consists of a radio
transceiver, which enables wireless communication with
neighbouring UbiSensors. In general, radio has four
operation modes: transmit, receive, idle and sleep. In transmit
and receive mode, radio requires minimum power levels on
the order of multiple milliwatts due to analog mixers, filters
and oscillators. Thus, it is important to minimize the
communication time and maximize the low power time in idle
and sleep modes. Furthermore, the operating mode change
transients may dissipate a lot of energy, e.g. from sleep mode
to transmit mode, which should be considered in the network
protocol [2][4].
Frequency band affects significantly to the radio
properties. The operating frequency determines radio
operating range and interferences from the surrounding
machinery. For industrial environment the interferences
emitted from the machinery are significant below few
hundred megahertz and drops rapidly above 1 GHz frequency
[6]. Most commercial short-range radio transceivers in
European region operate in the 433, 868 and 2400 MHz
license-free Industrial Scientific Medicine (ISM) frequency
bands. The characteristics of some of the most potential low
power transceivers currently available are summarized in
Table 1 [7 - 16].
The power efficiency of the radio can be determined by
dividing radio power consumption by radio bit rate in
transmit or receive mode, which yields energy per bit ratio
(E/bit). The E/bit is computed to the radios above and results
are presented in Fig. 2. The supply voltage is fixed to 3.0 V
for comparability. As seen in the figure, radios operating at
the 2.4 GHz frequency band are the most energy efficient due
to high data rates. Yet, these high data rates require also a
high performance microcontroller with a high-speed serial
bus.
This problem is solved in the NordicVLSI nRF2401 [9]
transceiver by an on-chip buffer, which adapts a low data rate
microcontroller interface with a high data rate (250 kbps or 1
Mbps) radio. The output power is adjustable between -20 and
0 dBm. The nRF2401 is utilized and analyzed in the
UbiSensor prototype.
B. Computation Subsystem
The choice of MCU affects significantly the power
consumption of a wireless sensor. Microcontroller power
efficiency can be analyzed by dividing processor
performance, using million instructions per second (MIPS),
by the power consumption. Thus, MIPS/W ratio can be
computed as
2
6
2
6
10 10
dd SW dd SW
V C CPI V C f CPI
f
W
MIPS

=

=

, (1)
TABLE I
TRANSCEIVER FEATURES

Manufacturer Model
Data Rate
(kbps)
Band
(MHz)
Sleep
(uA)
Idle
(mA)
RX
(mA)
TX
(mA)
NordicVLSI nRF2401 1000 2400 1 0.03 19 8.8
Skyworks CX72303 1000 2400 1 0.02 24 11
Conexant RF109 1200 2400 5 25 89 31
Infineon PBA31305 1000 2400 70 35 50 60
RFM TR1001 115.2 868 0.75 - 3.8 12
Xemics XE1201A 64 433 0.2 0.06 6 5.5
Infineon TDA 5250 64 868 9 0.75 8.6 4.9
NordicVLSI nRF903 76.8 433-950 1 0.6 18.5 12.5
Xemics XE1202 76.8 868/433 0.2 0.85 14 33
NordicVLSI nRF401 20 433 - 0.01 11 8
Power Subsystem
Capacitor
Voltage
Coverter
Communication
Subsystem
P
o
w
e
r

g
e
n
e
r
a
t
o
r
S
e
n
s
o
r
A
D
C
R
a
d
i
o
MCU
Sensing
Subsystem
Computing
Subsystem

Fig. 1. UbiSensor architecture.
57
72
281
403
33
78
258
230
723
1650
223
547
150
99
1200
1289
488
313
180
26
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
nRF2401
CX72303
RF109
PBA31305
TR1001
XE1201A
TDA 5250
nRF903
XE1202
nRF401
Energy/bit (nJ/b)
Transmit
Receive
Fig. 2. Transceiver energy consumption comparison.

where C
SW
is switch capacitance, V
dd
system supply voltage, f
operating frequency and CPI clock per instruction ratio [17].
The MIPS/W ratio is not dependent on the operating
frequency. Power efficiency of some low power
microcontrollers is compared in Fig. 3. The supply voltage is
fixed to 3.0 V for fairness. We should note that the
instruction set affects the performance to some extend. Thus,
only orders of magnitude are important. As seen in the figure,
CoolRisc processors are the most power efficient. The
differences between 81, 88 and 816 models are basically in
the amount of registers and memory [17].
The UbiSensor computation subsystem uses Xemics
XE88LC01 [18] microcontroller, which integrates CoolRisc
816 processor core with ADC. The microcontroller has 8 k
instructions program memory and 512 B data memory.
Maximum clock frequency is 2 MHz and CPI ratio is 1.
According to measurements, power consumption of the
XE88LC01 is 1.8 mW at 1.8 MHz clock frequency and 3.0 V
supply voltage yielding power efficiency of 1000 MIPS/W.
Result is worse than in Fig. 3 due to the integrated peripheral
components, i.e. ADC, UART, USRT, counters, timers and
I/O ports.
C. Sensing Subsystem
The selection of ADC is driven by current consumption
and sample resolution. Sample rate is typically not critical
and is in the order of 10 Hz. UbiSensor sensing subsystem
uses a simple low power temperature sensor, and a 16-bit
ADC, which is integrated in the MCU. The ADC includes
three pre-amplification stages for signal pre-processing and a
switch for selecting input from four differential sources [18].
D. Power Subsystem
The UbiSensor power subsystem design is presented in
Fig. 4. The power subsystem consists of two power
generators, which scavenge system supply energy. Panasonic
BP-376634 solar panel is 37 mm x 66 mm sized having 5.5 V
open circuit voltage and 33 mA short circuit current. Atmel
U3280 [19] transponder interface circuit is designed for
RFID applications and is able to generate energy and
communicate using 125 kHz magnetic field. Yet, only energy
generator is used and communication is implemented using
higher performance radio transceiver. Output voltage of the
generator is limited to 2.8 V and current to 8 mA. However,
magnetic field of the operation environment is not sufficient
for energy scavenging and extra field is generated by the
Atmel TMEB8704 RFID reader application kit [20].
The voltage converters provide voltage conversions and
regulation. An important issue is efficiency. Thus, switch-
mode regulators are used. The UbiSensor power subsystem
consists of Maxim MAX1676 [21] step-up and Texas
Instruments TPS62200 [22] step-down regulators, which are
selected due to small quiescent current and good efficiency at
the required current range. The step-down regulator output
voltage is minimized to 2.2 V to reduce system power
consumption. This is below the specified supply voltage
range of MCU, but the system reliability is verified.
A capacitor ensures the UbiSensor supply energy and
applicability when energy cannot be generated from the
operating environment. The UbiSensor uses Panasonic
EECS0HD224H [23] capacitor rated to 0.22 F and 5.5 V.
The capacitor voltage depends on the energy of the capacitor
and varies between 2.2 V and 5.0 V. The lower 2.2 V limit is
determined by the output voltage of the step-down regulator.
E. Implementation
Implemented UbiSensor prototype is presented in Fig. 5.
50
71
125
133
540
625
1111
2500
3030
5000
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
8051 (83L51FA)
PIC17Cxx
68HCxx
PIC16C5x
ARM7/Thumb
Punch
Nordic uRISC
CoolRisc 816
CoolRisc 88
CoolRisc 81
MIPS / W
Fig. 3. MIPS/W comparison [17].
MAX
1676
TPS
62200
TRANSPONDER
INTERFACE
SOLAR PANEL
2.2V
2.8V
5.0V
2.2 - 5.0V
0.22F
Power Generator Voltage Converters
Capacitor

Fig. 4. Power subsystem architecture.
Capacitor
Transponder
Interface Radio
Voltage
Regulators
Interconnection
Board and Sensor
MCU
Solar
Panel
Fig. 5. Photograph of the UbiSensor prototype.

Computation and communication subsystems are
implemented using the evaluation boards of component
manufacturers. Power subsystem is implemented using
separate circuit boards for each functional block, which are
then optimized and measured separately. An interconnection
board is used to connect the circuit boards together, and is
also equipped with the temperature sensor.
IV. PROTOTYPE POWER PERFORMANCE
UbiSensor prototype power consumption is first calculated
using data sheets of the selected components. Best case and
lowest power operating conditions are used to find the lower
limit of the consumption. Then, power consumption and
power generator performance are measured in typical
operating configuration. In both cases the following operation
sequence is used.
MCU is powered up from idle mode and the temperature
sensor is sampled. Then, the transceiver is powered up and
measured data is transmitted in a packet of 96 bits. Finally,
the system returns to idle mode. System wake up frequency is
1 or 10 Hz.
A. Calculated Minimum Power Consumption
Minimum power consumption is calculated using 2.2 V
supply voltage and the following system configuration.
Radio Transceiver power consumption is estimated
according to the NordicVLSI nRF2401data sheet [9]. The
packet is loaded into the radio transmit buffer using 50 kbps
data rate and transmitted using 1 Mbps data rate and -20 dBm
output power. Transceiver current consumptions in transmit
and idle mode are 8.8 mA and 32 A. The transmitter power
up time is 195 s.
MCU and ADC The power consumption of CPU and
ADC is estimated according to the Xemics XE88LC01 data
sheet [18]. ADC current consumption is approximated using
16-bit conversion and 512 kHz input sampling frequency
with 256 times oversampling. Thus, the conversion time is
500 s. The MCU and ADC use 2 MHz clock frequency. Idle
mode power consumption is 1.7 A.
Voltage converter The efficiency of the voltage
converter (DC-DC) is estimated to be 80%.
The results of the calculation are presented in Fig. 6a. As
seen in the figure, calculated minimum power consumptions
using 1 Hz and 10 Hz sample rates are 117 W and 314 W.
B. Measured Power Consumption
UbiSensor power consumption is measured in typical
operating conditions. Operating frequency is set to 1.8 MHz
due to correct timing of UART, which is used for diagnostics
reasons. The measured power consumptions for each
subsystem are presented in Fig. 6b. The system power
consumptions using 1 Hz and 10 Hz sample rates are 430 W
and 1.32 mW. Results are significantly higher than the
calculated minimum. This is probably due to the higher actual
power consumption on the idle mode than estimated. As seen
in the figure, the transceiver power consumption is
remarkably high at 10 Hz transmit frequency. One reason for
that is the energy consumption at the transmitter power down
transient, which is unspecified and ignored in the
calculations.
The current waveforms of microcontroller and transceiver
are measured and presented in Fig. 7. and Fig. 8. Due to
b) Measured
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1 10
Sample Rate (Hz)
P
o
w
e
r

C
o
n
s
u
m
p
t
i
o
n

(
m
W
)
MCU&ADC
RADIO
DC-DC
a) Calculated Minimum
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
1 10
Sample Rate (Hz)
P
o
w
e
r

C
o
n
s
u
m
p
t
i
o
n

(
m
W
)
MCU&ADC
RADIO
DC-DC
Fig. 6. Calculated and measured power consumption.

Fig. 7. Measured current consumption waveforms.

Fig. 8. Zoomed current consumption waveforms.

decoupling capacitors on the device boards, the waveforms
are slightly smoothed. As seen in the figure, system is
powered up at 1000 ms intervals. Average current
consumption of transceiver and microcontroller are 126 A
and 28 A. Detailed current consumption waveforms are
presented in Fig. 8. System wake up event is marked in the
figure as A. During the first 150 s after the wake up MCU
and ADC are initialized (A - B), which is followed by 500 s
long ADC measurement. During this, MCU is in the idle
mode and the current consumption is low. When conversion
is ready (C), MCU is powered up and the radio is initialized.
That lasts around 230 s (C - D). The transmitted data is
loaded into the radio transmit buffer using 55 kbps data rate,
which lasts 1.8 ms (D - E). Then, the radio is powered up to
transmit mode (F - G) and the packet is transmitted using 1
Mbps data rate (G). Finally, the system returns to idle mode
(H).
UbiSensor power consumption is analyzed in typical
operating conditions and supply voltages. The results are
presented in Table 2. The analysis excludes the power
consumption of the voltage converter. The highest power
consumption of 61.98 mW is reached when the radio is
receiving and MCU, ADC and the sensor are active.
Reducing the supply voltage from 3.0 V to 2.4 V decreases
system power consumption 24% - 77%, depending on the
operation mode. Reducing the transmit power from the
maximum (0 dBm) to the minimum (-20 dBm) decreases
power consumption 33%. Furthermore, the system power
consumption is 54% higher in the receive mode than in the
transmit mode using the lowest (-20dBm) RF transmission
power. That should be considered when designing network
protocols.
C. Measured Power Generator Performance
The energy scavenging performance of the solar panel and
transponder interface circuit are analyzed. The transponder
interface circuit is implemented using the Atmel U3280
transponder interface chip. The circuit uses LC-resonance
circuit tuned to 125 kHz using 2.2 nF capacitor and 737 H
coil. The coil area is 31 cm
2
.The Atmel TMEB8704 reader
application kit is used to generate magnetic field and the
output power of the U3280 is measured with various load
resistances and distances between reader coil and transponder
coil. The results are presented in Fig. 9. The maximum power
is around 19 mW at 410 ohms load resistance. The chip has
internal voltage and current limiters, which make a distinct
peak to the output power plot and should be considered when
designing voltage converter circuit. As seen in the right
figure, the U3280 chip requires fairly strength magnetic field
and practically an external field generator is required. When
using TMEB8704 application kit, useful operating range is
on the order of few centimeters. For longer operating range, a
higher power field generator is required.
The Panasonic BP-376634 solar panel consists of small
and serial connected solar cells gaining totally 5.5V output
voltage. The output power of the solar panel is measured with
various loading impedances at the same time as the light
intensity is varied. The results are presented in Fig. 10. As
seen in the figure, optimal loading impedance is 400 ohms
and measured maximum output power is 36 mW at 80 klx
0
5
10
15
20
100 300 500 700
Load Resistance (Ohms)
P / mW
I / mA
U / V
0
5
10
15
20
0 2 4 6 8
Proximity (cm)
P / mW
I / mA
U / V
Fig. 9. Transponder interface performance.

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
100 300 500 700
Load Resistance (Ohms)
P / mW
I / mA
U / V
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Illuminance (klx)
P / mW
I / mA
U / V
Fig. 10. Solar panel performance.
TABLE II
POWER ANALYSIS OF THE UBISENSOR

MCU
Mode
ADC
Mode
Sensor
Mode
Radio Mode Vcc (V)
Power
(mW)
Receive Data 3.0 61.98
2.4 46.28
Transmit Data 3.0 43.41
(Power: 0 dBm) 2.4 31.98
Transmit Data 3.0 29.82
Active Active Active (Power: -20 dBm) 2.4 21.37
Configuration and 3.0 5.25
data loading 2.4 3.95
Idle 3.0 3.70
2.4 2.70
3.0 3.63
2.4 2.65
3.0 3.39
2.4 2.35
Sleep 3.0 2.10
2.4 1.29
Idle 3.0 0.44
Off 2.4 0.10
Idle 3.0 0.44
2.4 0.10
Not Not installed 3.0 0.14
installed 2.4 0.02

light intensity, which correspond approximately a bright sun
light. Generated energy corresponds to the power of 1.5
mW/cm
2
. The characteristics of the solar panel are promising.
The selected solar panel is optimal for outdoor use, where
sunlight enables adequate power generation.
V. CONCLUSIONS
A prototype for a wireless ubiquitous sensor network is
designed and implemented. The design process includes
specification of system requirements, analysis and selection
of system components, and performance calculations. The
prototype is implemented and its applicability according to
power consumption verified by measurements. The power
consumption measurements indicate promising results.
The prototype average power consumption using 1 Hz
sample and transmit rate is 430 W, which can be scavenged
by the both power generator methods, e.g. using a 29 mm
2

sized solar cell in a bright sunlight or using the transponder
interface circuit in a near proximity to the RFID reader. The
average power consumption depends significantly on the
executed network protocol and the sample rate requirements
of the sensor application. The measure-and-transmit type of
operation presented in this paper requires a continuously
receiving destination node. When power consumption should
be minimized in the entire network, this type of
communication is usually not practical.
UbiSensor is passive most of time and the power
consumption depends strongly on the utilization of low power
operating modes. Important issues in the UbiSensor
development are the research of efficient energy scavenging
methods and the design of an intelligent network protocol
combined with a power management algorithm.
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Transceiver nRF903, Product Specification, Rev.
3.1, 2002. Available: http://www.nvlsi.no/
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Transceiver nRF401, Product Specification, Rev.
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PUBLICATION 8
M. Kohvakka, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, Ultra Low Energy Wireless
Temperature Sensor Network Implementation, in Proceedings of the 16th Interna-
tional Symposium on Personal Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC
2005), Berlin, Germany, Sep. 1114, 2005, pp. 801805.
2005 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from the proceedings of the 16th Interna-
tional Symposium on Personal Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications 2005.
2 0 0 5 I E E E 1 6 t h I n t e r n a t i o n a l S y m p o s i u m o n P e r s o n a l , I n d o o r a n d M o b i l e R a d i o C o m m u n i c a t i o n s
U l t r a Lo wE n e r gy Wi r e l e s s T e m p e r a t u r e S e n s o r
Ne t wo r k I m p l e m e n t a t i o n
M i kko K o h v a kka , M a r ko H a n n i ka i n e n , a n d T i m o D . H a m a l a i n e n
T a m p e r e U n i v e r s i t y o f T e c h n o l o gy
I n s t i t u t e o f D i gi t a l a n d C o m p u t e r S y s t e m s
P . O . B o x 5 5 3 , F I - 3 3 1 0 1 T a m p e r e , F i n l a n d
m i kko . ko h v a kka @ t u t . f , m a r ko . h a n n i ka i n e n @ t u t f i , t i m o . d . h a m a l a i n e n @ t u t . f i
A b s t r a c t - C o n d i t i o n m o n i t o r i n g i n b u i l d i n gs i s o n e o f t h e m o s t
p o t e n t i a l a n d f o r e s e e n a p p l i c a t i o n s f o r Wi r e l e s s S e n s o r Ne t wo r ks
( WS N) . T h i s p a p e r p r e s e n t s t h e d e s i gn a n d f u l l s c a l e p r o t o t y p e
i m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f WS N f o r t e m p e r a t u r e m o n i t o r i n g. T h e
p r o t o t y p e s a r e i m p l e m e n t e d u s i n g l o wp o we r c o m m e r c i a l o f - t h e -
s h e l f c o m p o n e n t s i n c l u d i n g a 2 . 4 GH z r a d i o , m i c r o c o n t r o l l e r s ,
a n d a c u s t o m T U T WS N c o m m u n i c a t i o n p r o t o c o l . A u s e r
a p p l i c a t i o n p r o v i d e s a gr a p h i c a l d a t a a n a l y s i s . M e a s u r e m e n t s
i n d i c a t e 1 8 3
l t W
t o 3 9 0 j I W a v e r a ge n o d e p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n s , a s
t e m p e r a t u r e i s m e a s u r e d a t 5 s i n t e r v a l s a n d d a t a i s m u l t i - h o p
r o u t e d t o a ga t e wa y . P r e d i c t e d l i f e t i m e wi t h t wo A A b a t t e r i e s i s
u p t o 4 . 9 y e a r s . I n a d d i t i o n , e x p e r i m e n t s i n d i c a t e t h a t t i m e
a c c u r a c y i s e x t r e m e l y i m p o r t a n t i n h a r d wa r e p r o t o t y p e s .
I . I NT R O D U C T I O N
Wi r e l e s s S e n s o r Ne t wo r ks ( WS N) wi l l s o o n e n a b l e v a r i o u s
i n t e l l i ge n t a p p l i c a t i o n s i n h o m e , o f f i c e , i n d u s t r i a l a n d o u t d o o r
e n v i r o n m e n t s [ 1 ] . WS Ns c o n s i s t o f t h o u s a n d s o f f u l l y
a u t o n o m o u s n o d e s , wh i c h c o m m u n i c a t e wi r e l e s s l y wi t h e a c h
o t h e r , s e n s e t h e i r e n v i r o n m e n t a n d s h a r e c o l l a b o r a t i v e t a s ks .
D a t a i s r o u t e d u s i n g m u l t i p l e h o p s f o r r o b u s t a n d s c a l a b l e
o p e r a t i o n s [ 2 ] . A l t h o u gh t h e n e t wo r k m a n a ge m e n t i s c o m p l e x ,
a v a i l a b l e e n e r gy a n d r a d i o b a n d wi d t h a r e v e r y s c a r c e .
C o n d i t i o n a l m o n i t o r i n g i n b u i l d i n gs , i n c l u d i n g t e m p e r a t u r e ,
h u m i d i t y , a n d ga s m e a s u r e m e n t s i s a s t r a i gh t f o r wa r d a n d o n e
o f t h e m o s t p o t e n t i a l a p p l i c a t i o n s f o r WS Ns [ 1 ] . T h e d a t a r a t e
a n d l a t e n c y r e q u i r e m e n t s a r e q u i t e l o w, b u t t h e r e q u i r e d n o d e
l i f e t i m e s h o u l d b e y e a r s wi t h o u t m a i n t e n a n c e [ 3 ] .
O n l y f e w e x p e r i m e n t a l e v a l u a t i o n s o f c o n d i t i o n a l
m o n i t o r i n g m u l t i - h o p WS Ns h a v e b e e n p u b l i s h e d . O n e WS N
i m p l e m e n t a t i o n p r e s e n t e d i n [ 4 ] e m p l o y s t o t a l l y 6 5 B e r ke l e y
M i c a I I C o m m e r c i a l O f f - T h e - S h e l f ( C O T S ) m o t e s , wh i c h
m o n i t o r t e m p e r a t u r e i n a v i n e y a r d . T e m p e r a t u r e v a l u e s a r e
ga t h e r e d a t 5 m i n u t e s i n t e r v a l s , a n d t h e d a t a i s r o u t e d t o a b a s e
s t a t i o n n o d e wi t h a t m a x i m u m 8 h o p s . T h e m o t e s a r e
i m p l e m e n t e d wi t h l o wp o we r m i c r o c o n t r o l l e r s a n d 9 1 6 M H z
r a d i o s . F o r t h e a p p l i c a t i o n , t h e m o t e s a r e s u p p l i e d b y l a r ge 4 2
A h b a t t e r y p a c ks . T h e r e p o r t e d l i f e t i m e s o f t h e r o u t i n g n o d e s
a r e a b o u t 3 m o n t h s .
A n o t h e r WS N i m p l e m e n t a t i o n c o n s i s t i n g o f 2 5 C O T S t y p e
P i c o No d e s i s i m p l e m e n t e d a n d m e a s u r e d i n [ 5 ] . T h e n o d e s
e m p l o y S t r o n gA R M S A - l 1 0 0 m i c r o p r o c e s s o r s a n d B l u e t o o t h
p h y s i c a l l a y e r s wi t h c u s t o m d a t a l i n k l a y e r a n d h i gh e r l a y e r
p r o t o c o l s . I n a p e r f o r m a n c e e v a l u a t i o n , t h e n o d e s m e a s u r e
t e m p e r a t u r e v a l u e s a t 5 s i n t e r v a l s , a n d m u l t i - h o p r o u t e d a t a t o
a b a s e s t a t i o n n o d e . M e a s u r e d a v e r a ge p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n p e r
n o d e i s a b o u t 6 m W r e s u l t i n g a p p r o x i m a t e l y 5 0 d a y s l i f e t i m e
wi t h t wo A A - b a t t e r i e s .
I n t h i s p a p e r we p r e s e n t t h e i m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f a f u l l
f e a t u r e d WS N f o r t e m p e r a t u r e s e n s i n g. C o m p a r e d t o c u r r e n t
p r o p o s a l s , s i gn i f i c a n t l y l o n ge r WS N n o d e l i f e t i m e s wi t h
s m a l l e r n o d e s i ze a r e p u r s u e d t o a c h i e v e . T h e s y s t e m c o n s i s t s
o f s e n s o r n o d e s a n d a ga t e wa y t o c o n n e c t t h e n e t wo r k t o a P C
f o r d a t a a n a l y s i s . T h e n e t wo r k i s b a s e d o n o u r T U T WS N
wi r e l e s s s e n s o r n e t wo r k d e s i gn t h a t p r o v i d e s v e r y h i gh e n e r gy
e f f i c i e n c y .
T h e c a s e a p p l i c a t i o n i s a h o m e t e m p e r a t u r e m o n i t o r
n e t wo r k, wh e r e t h e n o d e s a r e m o u n t e d o n t h e c e i l i n gs a n d
wa l l s a s d e p i c t e d i n F i g. 1 . T h e n o d e s a c q u i r e t e m p e r a t u r e
v a l u e s a t 5 s i n t e r v a l s wi t h a t l e a s t 1 C a c c u r a c y . T h e n u m b e r
o f n o d e s i s 1 0 0 , b u t t h i s i s n o t l i m i t e d b y T U T WS N. T h e
n e t wo r k i s r a n gi n g u p t o 1 0 0 m e t e r s , wh e r e t h e p r o x i m i t y
b e t we e n t h e n o d e s i s a t m o s t t e n m e t e r s . T h e r e a r e n o s t r i c t
d e l a y r e q u i r e m e n t s f o r t h e d a t a c o l l e c t i o n , b u t t h e l a t e n c y p e r
h o p s h o u l d b e b e l o w5 s .
T h e p a p e r i s o r ga n i ze d a s f o l l o ws . S e c t i o n 2 gi v e s a n
o v e r v i e w o f t h e T U T WS N t o p o l o gy a n d i t s M A C p r o t o c o l .
T h e d e s i gn o f t h e WS N p r o t o t y p e s a n d t h e u s e r a p p l i c a t i o n
a r e p r e s e n t e d i n S e c t i o n 3 . S e c t i o n 4 p r e s e n t s t h e p e r f o r m a n c e
e v a l u a t i o n , i n c l u d i n g c o m p o n e n t p o we r a n a l y s i s a n d
p r o t o t y p e p e r f o r m a n c e m e a s u r e m e n t s . S e c t i o n 5 c o n c l u d e s t h e
p a p e r .
I I . T U T WS N O VE R VI E W
T h e T U T WS N p r o t o c o l s t a c k i s t a r ge t e d a t l o w d a t a r a t e
a p p l i c a t i o n s wi t h u n l i m i t e d s c a l a b i l i t y a n d e x t r e m e l y l o w
e n e r gy c o n s u m p t i o n . A n i m p o r t a n t T U T WS N d e s i gn go a l h a s
b e e n m i n i m i ze d c o m m u n i c a t i o n d u t y c y c l e , wh i l e p r o v i d i n g
r a p i d a n d l o we n e r gy n e t wo r k c o n f i gu r a t i o n a n d m a i n t e n a n c e
o p e r a t i o n s . T U T WS N u t i l i ze s a c l u s t e r e d n e t wo r k t o p o l o gy ,
wh e r e e a c h c l u s t e r c o n s i s t s o f a c l u s t e r h e a d ( h e a d n o d e ) a n d
s e v e r a l s u b n o d e s . T h e h e a d n o d e s f o r m a f l a t t o p o l o gy wi t h
m u l t i - h o p d a t a r o u t i n g a s d e p i c t e d i n F i g. 1 . A l l n o d e s c a n
m o v e f r e e l y a n d t h e n e t wo r k i s c r e a t e d a n d r e c o n f i gu r e d
a u t o n o m o u s l y .
9 7 8 - 3 - 8 0 0 7 - 2 9 0 9 - 8 / 0 5 / $ 2 0 . 0 0 2 0 0 5 I E E E 8 0 1
H e a d n o d e a
S u b n o d e
0 Ga t e wa y
I
,
C l u s t e r s
F i g. 1 . T U T WS N t o p o l o gy i n t e m p e r a t u r e m o n i t o r i n g a p p l i c a t i o n .
A . T U T WS N M A C
T U T WS N i s b a s e d o n o u r p r e v i o u s Qo S c a p a b l e
T U T WLA N M A C p r o t o c o l [ 6 ] . I t i s a t i m e s l o t t e d p r o t o c o l ,
wh i c h d i v i d e s e a c h a c c e s s c y c l e i n t o a n a c t i v e p e r i o d
( s u p e r f r a m e ) a n d i d l e t i m e a s d e p i c t e d i n F i g. 2 . D a t a i s
e x c h a n ge d i n s u p e r f r a m e s , wh i l e o n i d l e t i m e t h e n o d e s a r e i n
a p o we r s a v e m o d e . T h e a c c e s s c y c l e l e n gt h i s a n a d j u s t a b l e
M A C p r o t o c o l p a r a m e t e r , wh i c h a l l o ws a t r a d e o f f b e t we e n
e n e r gy , d a t a r a t e a n d l a t e n c y .
F o r e n a b l i n g s c a l a b i l i t y , e a c h h e a d n o d e c o n t r o l s i t s
s u p e r f r a m e s t r u c t u r e a s y n c h r o n o u s l y t o e a c h o t h e r . I n t e r -
c l u s t e r i n t e r f e r e n c e s a r e e l i m i n a t e d b y a l l o c a t i n g d i f f e r e n t R F
c h a n n e l s f o r n e i gh b o r i n g c l u s t e r s . T h e a p p l i e d l o c a l
s y n c h r o n i za t i o n wi t h i n a c l u s t e r r e d u c e s h e a d n o d e d u t y c y c l e
a n d i s m u c h e a s i e r t o c o n t r o l t h a n m a i n t a i n i n g a gl o b a l
s y n c h r o n i za t i o n [ 7 ] .
E a c h s u p e r f r a m e b e gi n s wi t h a b e a c o n , wh i c h s p e c i f i e s
s l o t r e s e r v a t i o n s a n d s y n c h r o n i ze s d a t a e x c h a n ge s . T h e
b e a c o n i s s u c c e e d e d b y f o u r A LO H A a n d a t m o s t e i gh t
r e s e r v a b l e t i m e s l o t s . T h e A LO H A s l o t s a r e u s e d f o r
a s s o c i a t i o n a n d s l o t r e s e r v a t i o n r e q u e s t s , a n d f o r l o wp r i o r i t y
d a t a . T h e r e s e r v a b l e s l o t s p r o v i d e r e l i a b l e d a t a t r a n s f e r wi t h a
f i x e d t h r o u gh p u t , b u t t h e y r e q u i r e a s l o t r e s e r v a t i o n
p r o c e d u r e . T h e c o m b i n a t i o n o f A LO H A a n d T D M A s l o t s i s
a p p l i c a b l e f o r d i f f e r e n t t r a f f i c t y p e s a n d o p e r a t i n g c o n d i t i o n s ,
s u c h a s r a d i o i n t e r f e r e n c e . I n a d d i t i o n , a l l h e a d n o d e s
b r o a d c a s t n e t wo r k b e a c o n s o n a c o m m o n n e t wo r k s i gn a l i n g
c h a n n e l a t 5 0 0 m s i n t e r v a l s . T h e n e t wo r k b e a c o n c o n t a i n s a
c l u s t e r c h a n n e l a n d a n e x a c t t i m e t o a f o l l o wi n g s u p e r f r a m e ,
C l u s t e r
c h a n n e l
A c c e s s c y c l e
S u p e r t S u p e r -
i ;
f r a m e : I d l e f r a m eI - 0
wh i c h e f f e c t i v e l y r e d u c e s t h e r e q u i r e d r a d i o r e c e i v i n g t i m e
a n d e n e r gy f o r n e i gh b o r d i s c o v e r y o p e r a t i o n s a n d i n t e r - c l u s t e r
s y n c h r o n i za t i o n .
I n t e r - c l u s t e r c o m m u n i c a t i o n i s p e r f o r m e d d u r i n g a s o u r c e
c l u s t e r i d l e t i m e a n d a d e s t i n a t i o n c l u s t e r s u p e r f r a m e . A
s o u r c e h e a d n o d e a c t s s i m i l a r l y a s a s u b n o d e a n d s y n c h r o n i ze s
i t s e l f t o t h e s c h e d u l e o f a d e s t i n a t i o n h e a d n o d e . I n a d d i t i o n , a
s o u r c e h e a d n o d e h a s t o ke e p t r a c k o f t i m e o f f s e t s t o a l l
u t i l i ze d d e s t i n a t i o n h e a d n o d e s .
I I I . WI R E LE S S T E M P E R A T U R E S E NS O R P R O T O T Y P E S
T wo p r o t o t y p e n o d e s h a v e b e e n i m p l e m e n t e d f o r t h e
t e m p e r a t u r e n e t wo r k. T h e T U T WS N n o d e p r o t o t y p e i s
d e s i gn e d f o r v e r y h i gh e n e r gy e f f i c i e n c y a n d a d e q u a t e
p e r f o r m a n c e f o r o p e r a t i n g b o t h a s a s u b n o d e a n d h e a d n o d e . A
s i m p l e r T U T WS N s u b n o d e p r o t o t y p e t a r ge t s t o l o we r c o s t a n d
e v e n s m a l l e r s i ze .
A . T U T WS N No d e P r o t o t y p e
T h e n o d e p r o t o t y p e h a r d wa r e a r c h i t e c t u r e i s p r e s e n t e d i n
F i g. 3 . T h e p r o t o t y p e h a s X e m i c s X E 8 8 LC O 2 M i c r o C o n t r o l l e r
U n i t ( M C U ) i n c l u d i n g a 1 6 - b i t A D C , 2 2 K B p r o gr a m m e m o r y
a n d 1 K B d a t a m e m o r y . A n e x t e r n a l 8 K B M i c r o c h i p
2 5 A A 3 2 0 E E P R O M i s i n c l u d e d f o r n o n - v o l a t i l e d a t a m e m o r y .
M C U i s s e l e c t e d d u e t o a d e q u a t e 2 M I P S p e r f o r m a n c e a n d
h i gh 1 3 4 4 M I P S / W e n e r gy e f f i c i e n c y .
No r d i c S e m i c o n d u c t o r 2 . 4 GH z n R F 2 4 0 1 A r a d i o
t r a n s c e i v e r p r o v i d e s wi r e l e s s c o m m u n i c a t i o n . T h e h i gh
f r e q u e n c y a l l o ws p h y s i c a l l y s m a l l a n t e n n a s a n d e n o u gh
c h a n n e l s f o r f r e q u e n c y s p r e a d i n g b e t we e n c l u s t e r s . T h e r a d i o
h a s 1 M b p s d a t a r a t e , wh i c h e n a b l e s v e r y h i gh e n e r gy
e f f i c i e n c y . T h e c o n s u m e d e n e r gy p e r a p h y s i c a l l a y e r b i t i s
a b o u t 1 0 9 n J a t R X m o d e a n d 6 3 n J a t T X m o d e wi t h 0 d B m
p o we r l e v e l [ 8 ] . T r a n s m i s s i o n p o we r i s s e l e c t a b l e b e t we e n - 2 0
d B m a n d 0 d B m . T h e r a d i o h a s 8 4 s e l e c t a b l e R F c h a n n e l s ,
wh i c h e n a b l e s go o d n e t wo r k s c a l a b i l i t y . F u r t h e r m o r e , t h e
r a d i o h a s a n i n t e r n a l C y c l i c R e d u n d a n c y C h e c k ( C R C ) e r r o r
d e t e c t i o n a n d a d a t a b u f f e r , wh i c h r e d u c e s M C U p e r f o r m a n c e
r e q u i r e m e n t s . T h e p r o t o t y p e u s e s a q u a r t e r - wa v e Gi ga A n t
R u f a S M D a n t e n n a d u e t o s m a l l s i ze , o m n i - d i r e c t i o n a l
r a d i a t i o n a n d go o d 6 8 % e f f i c i e n c y . M e a s u r e d r a d i o r a n ge i s
a b o u t 1 5 m .
A t e m p e r a t u r e s e n s i n g i s i m p l e m e n t e d wi t h a M a x i m
M A X 6 6 0 7 t e m p e r a t u r e s e n s o r , a M a x i m M A X 6 0 1 8 v o l t a ge
r e f e r e n c e , a n d t h e i n t e gr a t e d A D C . A D C h a s p r e -
a m p l i f i c a t i o n a n d o f f s e t c o m p e n s a t i o n s t a ge s , wh i c h i m p r o v e
t i m e
i1 . T ~ : ~ 1 l . l :~ I
B e a c o n / f . 0 -
2 0 m s
F i g. 2 . T U T WS N a c c e s s c y c l e a n d s u p e r f r a m e . F i g. 3 . T U T WS N n o d e p r o t o t y p e h a r d wa r e a r c h i t e c t u r e .
9 7 8 - 3 - 8 0 0 7 - 2 9 0 9 - 8 / 0 5 / $ 2 0 . 0 0 2 0 0 5 I E E E
i ~ i I : I N
8 0 2
A n t e n n a
E E P R O M
R a d i o
T e s t p i n s - _ - A
T e m p e r a t u r e J
s e n s o r 5
P r o gr a m m i n g J
c o n n e c t o r
I
P o we r s wi t c h
-
l l
R e gu l a t o r
M C U
0 1 0 2 0 m m
F i g. 4 . T h e T U T WS N n o d e p r o t o t y p e .
a c c u r a c y . T h e m a x i m u m s a m p l e r a t e u s i n g 1 6 - b i t r e s o l u t i o n i s
2 kH z.
T h e s u p p l y v o l t a ge i s s t a b i l i ze d t o 2 . 5 V b y a T e x a s
I n s t r u m e n t s T P S 7 1 5 2 5 l i n e a r v o l t a ge r e gu l a t o r . T h e r e gu l a t o r
i s s e l e c t e d d u e t o v e r y l o we l e c t r o m a gn e t i c i n t e r f e r e n c e s a n d
q u i e s c e n t c u r r e n t . T h e p r o t o t y p e h a s a c o n n e c t o r f o r a b a t t e r y
t h a t i s s e l e c t e d a c c o r d i n g t o m e a s u r e d p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n a n d
t h e r e q u i r e d l i f e t i m e .
T h e T U T WS N n o d e p r o t o t y p e i s i m p l e m e n t e d i n a P C B
p r e s e n t e d i n F i g. 4 . T h e t o p s i d e o f t h e p r o t o t y p e c o n t a i n s t h e
r a d i o , a n t e n n a , E E P R O M , t e m p e r a t u r e s e n s o r , s o m e t e s t p i n s
a n d a p r o gr a m m i n g c o n n e c t o r . T h e b o t t o m s i d e c o n t a i n s M C U
a n d t h e v o l t a ge r e gu l a t o r . T h e s i ze o f t h e p r o t o t y p e i s 3 1 m m
x 2 3 m m x 5 m m .
B . T U T WS N S u b n o d e P r o t o t y p e
T h e T U T WS N s u b n o d e p r o t o t y p e i s b a s e d o n a No r d i c
S e m i c o n d u c t o r n R F 2 4 E 1 c h i p , wh i c h i n t e gr a t e s a r a d i o
t r a n s c e i v e r , M C U a n d A D C o n a s i n gl e p a c ka ge . T h e r a d i o
P H Y l a y e r i s s i m i l a r t o t h e n R F 2 4 0 1 A p r o v i d i n g go o d
c o m p a t i b i l i t y wi t h t h e T U T WS N n o d e p r o t o t y p e .
T h e h a r d wa r e a r c h i t e c t u r e o f t h e s u b n o d e p r o t o t y p e i s
p r e s e n t e d i n F i g. 5 . T h e c h i p i n c l u d e s a 8 0 5 1 c o m p a t i b l e
M C U c o r e r u n n i n g a t 1 6 M H z. T h e p r o c e s s o r p e r f o r m a n c e i s
a b o u t 2 M I P S a n d h a s 4 K B R A M f o r a p r o gr a m a n d 2 5 6 B
R A M f o r d a t a . I n a d d i t i o n , t h e r e i s a l o wp o we r R C o s c i l l a t o r
f o r a wa ke - u p t i m e r . A n e x t e r n a l E E P R O M i s u s e d f o r
p r o gr a m m e m o r y .
T h e R C o s c i l l a t o r p r o v i d e s l o w, 2 , u A s l e e p m o d e c u r r e n t
c o n s u m p t i o n , b u t i s v e r y i n a c c u r a t e . T h e o s c i l l a t o r f r e q u e n c y
i s t y p i c a l l y b e t we e n 1 kH z a n d 5 kH z, d e p e n d i n g o n
p r o c e s s i n g, t e m p e r a t u r e a n d s u p p l y v o l t a ge . T h e p r o t o t y p e
u t i l i ze s a M a x i m M A X 6 6 0 7 t e m p e r a t u r e s e n s o r a n d t h e A D C
A n t e n n a -
n R F 2 4 E 1 _
P r o gr a m m i n g
c o n n e c t o r
P o we r s wi t c h
1
Vo l t a ge
c o n v e r t e r
E E P R O M . 3
T e m p e r a t u r e
s e n s o r
F i g. 6 . T h e T U T WS N s u b n o d e p r o t o t y p e o n a 5 c e n t c o i n .
e m b e d d e d i n t h e n R F 2 4 E 1 c h i p . F o r s i m p l i c i t y , t h e p r o t o t y p e
u s e s a n i n t e r n a l b a n d ga b v o l t a ge r e f e r e n c e . A D C h a s a t
m a x i m u m 1 0 0 kH z s a m p l e r a t e a n d 1 2 - b i t r e s o l u t i o n .
T h e T U T WS N s u b n o d e p r o t o t y p e i s p r e s e n t e d i n F i g. 6 .
T h e t o p s i d e o f t h e p r o t o t y p e c o n t a i n s t h e n R F 2 4 E 1 c h i p wi t h
c r y s t a l , a n t e n n a a n d a p r o gr a m m i n g c o n n e c t o r . T h e b o t t o m
s i d e c o n t a i n s v o l t a ge c o n v e r t e r , E E P R O M , t e m p e r a t u r e s e n s o r
a n d a p o we r s wi t c h . T h e s i ze o f t h e p r o t o t y p e i s 2 3 m m x 1 3
m m x 5 m m .
C . T U T WS N Ga t e wa y P r o t o t y p e
T h e T U T WS N ga t e wa y b r i d ge s T U T WS N t o a R S - 2 3 2
s e r i a l b u s . T h e ga t e wa y u t i l i ze s t h e s a m e M C U a n d r a d i o t h a n
t h e T U T WS N n o d e p r o t o t y p e . T h e R S - 2 3 2 b u s i s a c c e s s e d b y
a M a x i m M A X 3 3 8 1 R S - 2 3 2 t r a n s c e i v e r a n d t h e U A R T o f
M C U . T h e i m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f t h e WS N ga t e wa y p r o t o t y p e i s
p r e s e n t e d i n [ 9 ] .
D . U s e r A p p l i c a t i o n
T h e u s e r a p p l i c a t i o n i s e x e c u t e d i n a P C f o r p r e s e n t i n g
m e a s u r e d d a t a gr a p h i c a l l y a n d f o r c o n f i gu r i n g t h e
m e a s u r e m e n t s . T h e u s e r a p p l i c a t i o n i s i m p l e m e n t e d i n J a v a
e n a b l i n g i n d e p e n d e n c e o f u n d e r l y i n g P C p l a t f o r m . T h e
a p p l i c a t i o n u s e s t h e J a v a C o m m u n i c a t i o n A p p l i c a t i o n
P r o gr a m m i n g I n t e r f a c e ( A P I ) t h a t s u p p o r t s R S - 2 3 2 s e r i a l
p o r t s , a n d p r o v i d e s s o f t wa r e p o r t i n g f o r Wi n d o ws a n d Li n u x .
A b o v e t h e A P I , t h e S wi n g t e c h n o l o gy p r o v i d e s Gr a p h i c a l
U s e r I n t e r f a c e ( GU I ) c o m p o n e n t s [ 1 0 ] .
A s c r e e n s h o t o f t h e u s e r a p p l i c a t i o n i s p r e s e n t e d i n F i g. 7 .
T h e a p p l i c a t i o n p r e s e n t s t h e c u r r e n t c l u s t e r t o p o l o gi e s o n
T U T WS N, a n d t h e d a t a r o u t i n g p a t h s . T h e s e a r e u p d a t e d
c o n s t a n t l y a s t h e t o p o l o gy c h a n ge s . No d e s a r e p r e s e n t e d a s
i n f o r m a t i o n b o x e s , wh i c h c o n t a i n a n o d e I D , a l o gi c a l n o d e
t y p e ( s u b n o d e o r h e a d n o d e ) , a s e n s o r t y p e , a n d t h e l a s t
m e a s u r e d v a l u e . S e n s o r d a t a c a n b e d i s p l a y e d a s gr a p h i c a l
c h a r t s , a s p r e s e n t e d i n t h e f i gu r e .
F i g. 5 . T U T WS N s u b n o d e p r o t o t y p e h a r d wa r e a r c h i t e c t u r e .
9 7 8 - 3 - 8 0 0 7 - 2 9 0 9 - 8 / 0 5 1 $ 2 0 . 0 0 2 0 0 5 I E E E
\ \
8 0 3
F i g. 7 . A s c r e e n s h o t o f t h e u s e r a p p l i c a t i o n .
I V. P R O T O T Y P E P E R F O R M A NC E
T h e e n e r gy p e r f o r m a n c e i s m e a s u r e d f r o m t h e i m p l e m e n t e d
p r o t o t y p e s . T h e m e a s u r e m e n t s c o n t a i n t h e s t a t i c p o we r
c o n s u m p t i o n s o f t h e m a i n c o m p o n e n t s o f p r o t o t y p e s , a n d t h e
a v e r a ge c o n s u m p t i o n wh i l e e x e c u t i n g t h e wi r e l e s s
t e m p e r a t u r e s e n s i n g a p p l i c a t i o n .
A . P o we r A n a l y s i s
T h e m e a s u r e m e n t s a r e c a r r i e d o u t i n s t a t e s wh e r e t h e r a d i o ,
M C U , A D C a n d s e n s o r a r e p r o gr a m m e d t o e n t e r d i f f e r e n t
o p e r a t i o n m o d e s . T h e M C U p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n i s m e a s u r e d
i n a n a c t i v e m o d e , wh e n t h e M C U c o r e i s e x e c u t i n g t h e s e n s o r
a p p l i c a t i o n , a n d i n a s l e e p m o d e , wh e n o n l y a wa ke u p t i m e r
i s a c t i v e . T h e A D C a n d s e n s o r p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n s a r e
m e a s u r e d i n a c t i v e a n d s h u t d o wn ( o f f ) m o d e s . T h e r a d i o
p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n i s m e a s u r e d i n s l e e p , r e c e p t i o n a n d
t r a n s m i s s i o n m o d e s wi t h a m i n i m u m a n d m a x i m u m
t r a n s m i s s i o n p o we r l e v e l .
T A B LE I
T H E P O WE R A NA LY S I S O F T H E T U T WS N S U B NO D E A ND T U T WS N NO D E
P R O T O T Y P E S .
M C U A D C S e n s o r R a d i o
T U T WS N T U T WS N
s u b n o d e p o we r n o d e p o we r
a c t i v e a c t i v e a c t i v e R X 6 6 . 0 3 m W 5 9 . 5 5 m W
a c t i v e a c t i v e a c t i v e T X ( 0 d B m ) 4 4 . 1 0 m W 3 7 . 7 0 m W
a c t i v e a c t i v e a c t i v e T X ( - 2 0 d B m ) 3 2 . 9 0 m W 2 6 . 6 0 m W
a c t i v e a c t i v e a c t i v e s l e e p 1 1 . 6 4 m W 3 . 0 4 m W
a c t i v e a c t i v e o f f s l e e p 1 1 . 6 0 m W 3 . 0 1 m W
a c t i v e o f f o f f s l e e p 1 0 . 5 6 m W 1 . 6 9 m W
s l e e p o f f o f f s l e e p 1 5 , W 2 4 i W
T h e r e s u l t s a r e p r e s e n t e d i n T a b l e I a n d i n c l u d e t h e p o we r
d i s s i p a t i o n i n t h e v o l t a ge c o n v e r t e r , wh i l e t h e p r o t o t y p e s a r e
s u p p l i e d wi t h 3 V s u p p l y v o l t a ge . T h e m i n i m u m p o we r
c o n s u m p t i o n s f o r t h e p r o t o t y p e s a r e 1 5 i W a n d 2 4 , u W, wh e n
a l l c o m p o n e n t s a r e i n a c t i v e . A h i gh e r p o we r i n t h e n o d e
p r o t o t y p e i s m o s t l y c a u s e d b y a n e x t e r n a l 3 2 kH z c r y s t a l t h a t
d r i v e s t h e M C U wa ke u p t i m e r .
T h e m a x i m u m p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n s a r e a c h i e v e d wh e n a l l
c o m p o n e n t s a r e i n a c t i v e m o d e a n d t h e r a d i o i s i n r e c e i v e
m o d e . T h e n , t h e s u b n o d e p r o t o t y p e a n d t h e n o d e p r o t o t y p e
p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n s a r e 6 6 . 0 3 m W a n d 5 9 . 5 5 m W,
r e s p e c t i v e l y . T h e a n a l y s i s s h o ws t h e X e m i c s c o r e h a s a v e r y
h i gh e n e r gy e f f i c i e n c y c o m p a r e d t o t h e 8 0 5 1 c o r e . M o r e o v e r ,
t h e r a d i o c l e a r l y d o m i n a t e s t h e m o m e n t a r y p o we r
c o n s u m p t i o n i n b o t h p r o t o t y p e s . P a r t i c u l a r l y , r a d i o r e c e i v i n g
t i m e i s c o s t l y . T h e n o d e p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n o v e r d o u b l e s
d u r i n g t h e r e c e p t i o n c o m p a r e d t o t r a n s m i s s i o n wi t h t h e l o we s t
- 2 0 d B m t r a n s m i s s i o n p o we r .
B . M e a s u r e m e n t s
T h e a v e r a ge p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n s a r e m e a s u r e d f r o m
i m p l e m e n t e d p r o t o t y p e s , wh i c h e x e c u t e t h e T U T WS N s t a c k
a n d t h e s e n s o r a p p l i c a t i o n . F o r t h e m e a s u r e m e n t s , t h e r o u t i n g
p r o t o c o l e m p l o y s a s t r a t e gy wh e r e r o u t i n g i s d y n a m i c , b u t t h e
l o we s t c o s t r o u t e t o wa r d s t h e T U T WS N ga t e wa y i s s e l e c t e d
a c c o r d i n g t o t h e p h y s i c a l p o s i t i o n s o f t h e n o d e s . A l l
p r o t o t y p e s s a m p l e t h e i r t e m p e r a t u r e s e n s o r s a t 5 s i n t e r v a l s
a n d r o u t e d a t a t o a WS N ga t e wa y u s i n g r e s e r v a b l e d a t a s l o t s .
T U T WS N n o d e p r o t o t y p e s u t i l i ze a p o we r s a v i n g s t r a t e gy ,
wh e r e d a t a f r a m e s a r e t r a n s m i t t e d a n d r e c e i v e d o n l y a t t h e
b e gi n n i n g o f T U T WS N M A C s l o t s . D u r i n g t h e r e m a i n i n g
t i m e , n o d e s a r e i n a s l e e p m o d e . H o we v e r , t h e T U T WS N
s u b n o d e p r o t o t y p e l a c ks t h e r e q u i r e d t i m i n g a c c u r a c y a n d
r e s o l u t i o n o f t h e wa ke - u p t i m e r . A l s o , t h e l o w m e m o r y
r e s o u r c e s l i m i t t h e a c c u r a c y o f t h e wa ke - u p t i m e r c a l i b r a t i o n
a l go r i t h m . H e n c e , t h e s u b n o d e p r o t o t y p e s d o n o t e n t e r t h e
l o we s t p o we r s l e e p m o d e d u r i n g t h e m e a s u r e m e n t s . T h u s , t h e
s u b n o d e p r o t o t y p e p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n wi t h t h e f u l l p o we r
s a v i n g f e a t u r e s i s e s t i m a t e d .
F o r t h e m e a s u r e m e n t s , p r o t o t y p e s a r e s u p p l i e d b y I F
c a p a c i t o r s a n d t h e a v e r a ge c u r r e n t c o n s u m p t i o n s a r e
d e t e r m i n e d b y t h e s l o p e s o f t h e c a p a c i t o r t e r m i n a l v o l t a ge s .
F r o m t h e o b t a i n e d c u r r e n t s , p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n s a r e
d e t e r m i n e d u s i n g t h e 3 . 0 V s u p p l y v o l t a ge .
F i r s t , t h e p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n s o f b o t h p r o t o t y p e s a r e
m e a s u r e d o p e r a t i n g a s s u b n o d e s . T h e p o we r r e s u l t s wi t h 5 s
T A B LE I I
M E A S U R E D S U B NO D E P O WE R C O NS U M P T I O NS A ND E S T I M A T E D LI F E T I M E S
WI T H A C R 2 5 4 0 A ND T WO A A B A T T E R I E S ( 5 S A C C E S S C Y C LE LE NGT H ) .
A v e r a ge Li f e t i m e wi t h a Li f e t i m e wi t h
p o we r C R 2 4 5 0 b a t t e r y 2 A A b a t t e r i e s
T U T WS N n o d e a s 8 8 . 2 , u W 8 7 9 d a y s 1 0 . 1 y e a r s
a s u b n o d e
T U T WS N s u b n o d e 1 0 . 6 m W 6 . 6 d a y s 3 0 . 5 d a y s
T U T WS N s u b n o d e 8 0 . 7 , W 9 6 0 d a y s 1 1 . 0 y e a r s
wi t h p o we r s a v i n g
( e s t i m a t e d )
9 7 8 - 3 - 8 0 0 7 - 2 9 0 9 - 8 / 0 5 / $ 2 0 . 0 0 2 0 0 5 I E E E
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S u b n o d e s p e r h e a d n o d e
F i g. 8 . M e a s u r e d h e a d n o d e p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n s a n d e s t i m a t e d l i f e t i m e s
wi t h t wo A A b a t t e r i e s ( 5 s a c c e s s c y c l e l e n gt h ) .
M A C a c c e s s c y c l e l e n gt h a r e p r e s e n t e d i n T a b l e I I . A c c o r d i n g
t o t h e m e a s u r e m e n t s , t h e n o d e p r o t o t y p e a n d t h e s u b n o d e
p r o t o t y p e c o n s u m e 8 8 . 2 j i W a n d 1 0 . 6 m W, r e s p e c t i v e l y . I n
a d d i t i o n , t h e e s t i m a t e d T U T WS N s u b n o d e p r o t o t y p e p o we r
c o n s u m p t i o n wi t h f u l l p o we r s a v i n g wo u l d r e d u c e t o 8 0 . 7
gW.
I n t h e b a s i s o f t h e p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n r e s u l t s , n o d e
l i f e t i m e s a r e e s t i m a t e d wi t h t wo b a t t e r y t y p e s : a C R 2 4 5 0
l i t h i u m c o i n b a t t e r y a n d t wo s e r i a l l y c o n n e c t e d A A a l ka l i n e
b a t t e r i e s . Wi t h t h e f u l l p o we r s a v i n g, t h e l i f e t i m e s o f b o t h
p r o t o t y p e s wi t h t h e C R 2 4 5 0 a r e a b o u t 9 0 0 d a y s , a n d wi t h t h e
t wo A A b a t t e r i e s o v e r 1 0 y e a r s .
I n p r a c t i c e , t h e l i f e t i m e s a r e l i m i t e d b y t h e b a t t e r y s e l f -
d i s c h a r gi n g. T h e s u b n o d e p r o t o t y p e l i f e t i m e wi t h t h e l i m i t e d
p o we r s a v i n g i s b e l o w a m o n t h . T h i s c l e a r l y s h o ws t h e
i m p o r t a n c e f o r t h e M A C l a y e r p o we r s a v e f u n c t i o n a l i t y wi t h
c o m p a t i b l e h a r d wa r e .
Ne x t , t h e p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n o f t h e T U T WS N n o d e
p r o t o t y p e i s m e a s u r e d i n t h e h e a d n o d e m o d e . T h e M A C
a c c e s s c y c l e l e n gt h i s f i x e d t o 5 s , a n d t h e n u m b e r o f
a s s o c i a t e d s u b n o d e s i n c r e a s e s f r o m 0 t o 4 , wh i c h i s t y p i c a l i n
t h e c a s e a p p l i c a t i o n .
T h e r e s u l t e d h e a d n o d e p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n i n c r e a s e s f r o m
3 9 0 j i W t o 5 6 0
p W, a s p r e s e n t e d i n F i g. 8 . T o d i s t r i b u t e
p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n m o r e e q u a l l y b e t we e n n o d e s , t h e
h e a d n o d e o p e r a t i o n i s t o b e r o t a t e d b e t we e n T U T WS N n o d e
p r o t o t y p e s . I n t h i s c a s e , t h e a v e r a ge p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n o f t h e
T U T WS N n o d e p r o t o t y p e s r e d u c e s f r o m 3 9 0 1 i W t o 1 8 3
gW.
T h i s i s a l s o p r e s e n t e d i n t h e f i gu r e . T h e a v e r a ge l a t e n c y p e r
h o p i s a b o u t 2 . 5 s .
T h e l i f e t i m e o f t h e T U T WS N n o d e p r o t o t y p e wi t h t wo A A
b a t t e r i e s i s e s t i m a t e d f o r a h e a d n o d e , a n d a v e r a ge l y f o r a
h e a d n o d e a n d 0 t o 4 s u b n o d e s . T h e r e s u l t s a r e p r e s e n t e d i n t h e
r i gh t a x i s o f F i g. 8 . Wi t h o u t t h e r o t a t i o n o f t h e h e a d n o d e
f u n c t i o n a l i t y , t h e h e a d n o d e l i f e t i m e r e d u c e s f r o m 2 . 3 y e a r s t o
1 . 6 y e a r s a s s u b n o d e s a r e a d d e d . I f t h e h e a d n o d e r o t a t i o n i s
a p p l i e d , a v e r a ge n o d e p r o t o t y p e l i f e t i m e i n c r e a s e s f r o m 2 . 3
y e a r s t o 4 . 9 y e a r s .
P r a c t i c a l l y , t h e u p p e r l i m i t f o r a s s o c i a t e d s u b n o d e s i s s e t b y
t h e r a d i o r a n ge a n d t h e h e a d n o d e l o a d i n g. T h e p r o x i m i t y
b e t we e n h e a d n o d e s s h o u l d n o t b e m o r e t h a n t e n m e t e r s . A l s o ,
i n p r a c t i c e t h e n e t wo r k s c a n n i n g c a u s e d b y n o d e f a i l u r e s ,
i n t e r f e r e n c e s a n d m o b i l i t y wo u l d i n c r e a s e p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n
a r o u n d 1 0 0 , t W.
V. C O NC LU S I O NS
P h y s i c a l i m p l e m e n t a t i o n s f o r a t e m p e r a t u r e s e n s i n g WS N
h a s b e e n p r e s e n t e d . Ne t wo r k e n e r gy c o n s u m p t i o n i s
m i n i m i ze d b y t h e t i m e s l o t t e d M A C p r o t o c o l a n d v e r y l o w
p o we r C O T S h a r d wa r e c o m p o n e n t s . T h e m e a s u r e m e n t s s h o w
t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f a c c u r a t e t i m i n g a n d p r o p e r p o we r s a v i n g
m o d e s i n t i m e s l o t t e d M A C p r o t o c o l s . T h e p o we r
c o n s u m p t i o n wi t h t h e r o t a t i o n o f h e a d n o d e s a n d a s t a b l e
n e t wo r k i s a s l o wa s 1 8 3 , u W r e s u l t i n g n e a r l y 5 y e a r s l i f e t i m e
wi t h t wo A A b a t t e r i e s . C o m p a r e d t o t h e M i c a I I t y p e
b a c kb o n e n o d e s i n [ 4 ] , a h e a d n o d e l i f e t i m e i s 1 0 0 t o 3 0 0 t i m e s
l o n ge r d e p e n d i n g o n t h e r o t a t i o n o f t h e h e a d n o d e s . C o m p a r e d
t o t h e P i c o No d e s i n [ 5 ] , T U T WS N n o d e a v e r a ge l i f e t i m e i s
o v e r 3 0 t i m e s l o n ge r .
A r e a s o n a b l e u s a b i l i t y i s a c h i e v e d b y t h e l o n g n o d e
l i f e t i m e s a n d t h e f u l l y a u t o n o m o u s n e t wo r k o p e r a t i o n . T h e
p o we r c o n s u m p t i o n i s l o we n o u gh f o r s c a v e n gi n g t h e s u p p l y
e n e r gy p u r e l y f r o m a m b i e n t e n e r gy , i n c l u d i n g l o w l e v e l
v i b r a t i o n s , a m b i e n t l i gh t a n d t e m p e r a t u r e gr a d i e n t s .
R E F E R E NC E S
[ 1 ] E . H . J r . C a l l a wa y , a n d E . H . C a l l a wa y , Wi r e l e s s s e n s o r n e t wo r ks :
a r c h i t e c t u r e s a n d p r o t o c o l s , A u e r b a c h P u b l i c a t i o n s , 2 0 0 3 .
[ 2 ] J . N. A l - K a r a ki , a n d A . E . K a m a l , " R o u t i n g t e c h n i q u e s i n wi r e l e s s
s e n s o r n e t wo r ks : a s u r v e y , " I E E E Wi r e l e s s C o m m u n i c a t i o n s , v o l . 1 1 , n o .
6 , p p . 6 - 2 8 , D e c . 2 0 0 4 .
[ 3 ] J . We a t h e r a l l a n d A . J o n e s , " U b i q u i t o u s n e t wo r ks a n d t h e i r
a p p l i c a t i o n s , " I E E E Wi r e l e s s C o m m u n i c a t i o n s , v o l . 9 , n o . 1 , p p . 1 8 - 2 9 ,
F e b . 2 0 0 2 .
[ 4 ] R . B e c kwi t h , D . T e i b e l , a n d P . B o we n , " R e p o r t f r o m t h e f i e l d : r e s u l t s
f r o m a n a gr i c u l t u r a l wi r e l e s s s e n s o r n e t wo r k, " I n P r o c . I E E E C o n f : o n
Lo c a l C o m p u t e r Ne t wo r ks , No v . 2 0 0 4 , T a m p a , F A , p p . 4 7 1 - 4 7 8 .
[ 5 ] J . M . R e a s o n , a n d J . M . R a b a e y , " A s t u d y o f e n e r gy c o n s u m p t i o n a n d
r e l i a b i l i t y i n a m u l t i - h o p s e n s o r n e t wo r k, " M o b i l e C o m p u t i n g a n d
C o m m u n i c a t i o n s R e v i e w, v o l . 8 , n o . 1 , p p . 8 4 - 9 7 , J a n . 2 0 0 4 .
[ 6 ] M . H a n n i ka i n e n , T . La v i kko , P . K u kka l a , a n d T . H i i m a l a i i n e n ,
" T U T WLA N - Qo S s u p p o r t i n g wi r e l e s s n e t wo r k, " T e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n
S y s t e m s - M o d e l l i n g, A n a l y s i s , D e s i gn a n d M a n a ge m e n t , v o l . 2 3 , n o . 3 -
4 , K l u we r A c a d e m i c P u b l i s h e r s , 2 0 0 3 , p p . 2 9 7 - 3 3 3 .
[ 7 ] C . R . Li n , a n d M . Ge r l a , " A d a p t i v e c l u s t e r i n g f o r m o b i l e wi r e l e s s
n e t wo r ks , " I E E E J o u r n a l o n S e l e c t e d A r e a s i n C o m m u n i c a t i o n s , v o l . 1 5 ,
n o . 7 , p p . 1 2 6 5 - 1 2 7 5 , S e p . 1 9 9 7 .
[ 8 ] [ 1 4 ] M . K o h v a kka , M . H a n n i ka i n e n , T . D . H a m a i l a i n e n , " E n e r gy
o p t i m i ze d b e a c o n t r a n s m i s s i o n r a t e i n a wi r e l e s s s e n s o r n e t wo r k, " i n
P r o c . I E E E I n t . S y m p . o n P e r s o n a l I n d o o r a n d M o b i l e R a d i o
C o m m u n i c a t i o n s , Ge r n a n y , S e p . 2 0 0 5 , a c c e p t e d .
[ 9 ] M . K o h v a kka , M . H a n n i ka i n e n , T . D . H a m a l a i i n e n , " Wi r e l e s s s e n s o r
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I E E E E u r o m i c r o C o n f : o n D i gi t a l S y s t e m s D e s i gn , A u g. 2 0 0 5 , P o r t u ga l ,
a c c e p t e d .
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9 7 8 - 3 - 8 0 0 7 - 2 9 0 9 - 8 / 0 5 / $ 2 0 . 0 0 2 0 0 5 I E E E
T U T WS N n o d e a s a h e a d n o d e ( p o we r )
- - T U T WS N n o d e a v e r a ge ( p o we r )
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PUBLICATION 9
M. Kohvakka, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, Wireless Sensor Network
Implementation for Industrial Linear Position Metering, in Proceedings of the 8th
Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design Architectures, Methods, and Tools
(DSD 2005), Porto, Portugal, Aug. 30Sept. 3, 2005, pp. 267273.
2005 IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, fromthe proceedings of the 8th Euromicro
Conference on Digital System Design Architectures, Methods, and Tools 2005.

P.O.Box 553, FI-33101 Tampere, Finland

Abstract

This paper presents the design and performance
measurements of a prototype Wireless Sensor Network
(WSN) for industrial linear position metering. Design
includes two different prototype platforms and a user
application. Prototypes combine energy efficient
commercial off-the-shelf components including a 2.4 GHz
radio, and the custom TUTWSN communication protocols
resulting high robustness, autonomous operation and very
low power consumption. The user application displays
sensor data graphically and enables further data analysis.
Measurements contain component power analysis and
prototype performance measurements. The measurements
indicate 200 W to 400 W average node power
consumption, as 16-bit sample is measured with 1 Hz
sample rate, and routed to a WSN gateway with 1 s
latency per hop and 512 bps throughput between nodes.
Predicted lifetime of implemented WSN is 2 months with a
small rechargeable battery or over 2 years with two AA
batteries.

1. Introduction

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) nodes are
characterized as very small, low energy and cheap
platforms that are able to sense, process data and
communicate wirelessly. Suitable applications are found
from home, outdoor and industrial environments [1].
A fundamental WSN research challenge has been the
combination of a complex network management with very
scarce energy resources. Wireless communication
protocols and algorithms are usually very complex,
allowing fully autonomous ad-hoc operation in large scale
networks. Network control is distributed to the whole
network, which enables high robustness against local radio
path interferences and node failures. WSN nodes are
deployed in the area of interest as a sensor field, where
data is routed using multiple low energy hops [2], [3].
For practical reasons, nodes should operate by small
batteries for years, or they have to scavenge all supply
energy from their operating environment [4]. This requires
very high energy efficiency in both communication
protocols and hardware implementation, which both have
to be tailored according to application requirements.
WSN nodes have been designed by several research
groups over the last decade. Most often they are
implemented by commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)
components, which provide sufficient performance with
low development and production costs.
BTnode [5] is a demonstration platform for ad-hoc
networks. BTnode combines an Ericsson ROK 101 007
Bluetooth module with an Atmel ATmega128L
microcontroller. BTnode supports only a star network
topology with one master and at maximum seven slave
nodes. However, a multi-hop WSN can be implemented
by dual-radio BTnodes [6]. Reported power consumption
of a connected dual-radio BTnode is 445 mW. Due to the
high energy consumption, BTnodes are most suitable for
applications that are active over a limited time period,
while requiring high network throughput.
PicoNode combines a Bluetooth physical layer with
custom data link layer and higher layer protocols, which
are executed on a StrongARM SA-1100 microprocessor.
The performance of a temperature sensing WSN with 25
PicoNodes is evaluated in [7]. Temperature is measured at
5 s intervals and data is multi-hop routed to a base station
node. Reported average power consumption per node is
about 6 mW resulting approximately 50 days lifetime with
two AA-batteries.
Berkeley Mica II mote [8] is a commercial platform,
which consists of an Atmel ATmega128L microcontroller
and a 916 MHz radio. A WSN implementation with 65
Mica II motes deployed in a vineyard is presented in [9].
The motes gather temperature values at 5 minutes intervals
and multi-hop route data to a base station node. The
Wireless Sensor Network Implementation for Industrial Linear Position
Metering

reported lifetimes of routing nodes are about 3 months
with large 42 Ah battery packs.
In this paper we present the implementation of a full
featured WSN for industrial linear position metering. The
work includes two different prototype platforms and a user
application. Linear position sensors are widely used in
industry for measuring the displacements of moving parts.
WSN eliminates the need of extensive cabling, thus
reducing both material and installation costs. A new WSN
design has been selected, as current proposals do not
fulfill the performance and lifetime requirements of the
metering application. The physical WSN prototypes are
implemented using low power COTS components and
custom TUTWSN communication protocols.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. The
design requirements for the new WSN are presented in
Section 2. Section 3 gives an overview of the TUTWSN
topology and its MAC protocol. The design of WSN
prototype platforms is presented in Section 4. Section 5
presents the performance evaluation, including component
power analysis and prototype performance measurements.
The paper is concluded in Section 6.

2. Application Design Requirements

The WSN application design contains a complete linear
position metering system from a sensor to data analysis on
a workstation. The design utilizes TUTWSN as a base
technology, including its protocol stack and network
architecture. Two different prototypes are needed, one for
the linear position sensor, and one for a WSN gateway
that connect the WSN to other networks and terminals.
The linear position metering system measures low
frequency movements, where data is gathered from
sensors at 1 Hz sample rate and 16-bit resolution. All
samples are time stamped. The expected number of
sensors is 50, but this should not be limited. The network
range is one hundred meters, where sensors are at most ten
meters apart from each other. WSN data is multi-hop
routed in the network while the targeted latency per hop is
1 s. The required network throughput is 512 bits/s. There
are no strict delay requirements for the data collection, but
the reliability of the WSN is critical. Therefore, the node
must be able to buffer and retransmit samples.
A wireless linear position sensor is assembled by two
parts, as a WSN node is attached on the physical
connector of a linear position sensor. Thus, the WSN
nodes should not increase the size or weight of the
existing physical sensor significantly. The sensors will
operate in harsh physical environment containing fluids,
dust, vibration and electromagnetic interferences. Hence,
WSN nodes should be sealed on waterproof metal
containers. The sensors should be powered by
rechargeable batteries having at least 1 month lifetime.
3. TUTWSN Overview

TUTWSN protocol stack has been developed for low
data rate applications, where good scalability and low
energy consumption are required. An important TUTWSN
design goal has been minimized communication duty
cycle, while providing rapid and low energy network
configuration and maintenance operations. TUTWSN is
based on our previous experience on QoS supporting,
proprietary WLAN MAC implementation [10].
TUTWSN utilizes clustered network topology,
presented in Figure 1. Each cluster consists of two logical
types of nodes: a single cluster head (headnode) and
several members (subnode). Headnodes maintain cluster
synchronization and participate in multi-hop data routing
in network. Subnodes can communicate only with
headnodes, thus having significantly lower performance
and energy requirements than headnodes. Network
contains also one or more WSN gateways, which request
data from WSN nodes and form bridges to other networks.
The implemented linear sensing application employs
homogenous nodes, which select their logical type
(headnode or subnode) dynamically during operation. The
selection is made according to heard neighboring clusters
and their loading. The portion of subnodes is higher in
densely deployed parts of the network for achieving
energy saving. Network lifetime is extended by actively
rotating the headnode functionality among nodes.

3.1 TUTWSN MAC

TUTWSN utilizes a time slotted MAC protocol, which
divides each access cycle into an active period for data
exchanging (superframe) and an idle time, when nodes are
in a power saving mode. These are presented in Figure 2.
The slotted structure allows a trade off between energy
and data rate. The duty cycle is further reduced by
applying slotted-ALOHA and Time Division Multiple
Access (TDMA) mechanisms in superframes. For
Headnode Subnode Gateway Cluster
Analyzer PC
Wireless linear
position sensors

Figure 1. TUTWSN clustered ad-hoc topology.

enabling scalability, each headnode controls its
superframe structure asynchronously to each other. Inter-
cluster interferences are eliminated by allocating different
RF channels for neighboring clusters. Applied local
synchronization in clusters reduces headnode duty cycle
and is much easier to control than a global synchronization
[11].
Each superframe begins with a beacon, which is
succeeded by four ALOHA and at most eight reservable
time slots, each 20 ms long. These are presented in Figure
2. The beacon synchronizes a cluster, specifies time slot
assignments and provides cluster status information.
ALOHA slots are used for association and slot reservation
requests, and for low priority data. Reservable slots
provide reliable data transfer with fixed throughput, but
require a slot reservation procedure. In addition, all
headnodes broadcast network beacons on a network
signaling channel at 500 ms intervals. The network beacon
contains an exact time to a following superframe, which
effectively reduces the required radio receiving time and
energy for network maintenance operations.
Inter-cluster communication is performed during source
cluster idle time and destination cluster superframe. A
source headnode acts similarly as a subnode and
synchronizes itself to the schedule of a destination
headnode. Source headnode has to keep track of time
offsets to utilized destination headnodes.

4. Prototype WSN Design

Prototype WSN design includes hardware prototype
implementations for a WSN node and a WSN gateway,
and software implementations for a WSN application in
nodes and a user application in the analyzer PC.

4.1 WSN Node

A WSN node prototype is an improved version of the
WSN prototype platform presented in [12]. The hardware
architecture for the WSN node is presented in Figure 3.
The architecture is divided into four subsystems:
communication, computing, sensing and power
subsystems.
The communication subsystem provides wireless
communication links to neighboring nodes. The subsystem
consists of a Nordic Semiconductor nRF2401A radio
transceiver operating at 2.4 GHz license free Industrial
Scientific Medicine (ISM) frequency band. The 2.4 GHz
frequency band is high enough for avoiding interferences
from machinery [13] and for allowing physically small
and efficient antennas. The radio has 1 Mbps data rate,
which enables very high energy efficiency. The consumed
energy per a physical layer bit is about 109 nJ at RX mode
and 63 nJ at TX mode with 0 dBm power level [14]. The
transmission power level is selectable between -20 dBm
and 0 dBm. The radio has 84 selectable RF channels,
which allows very good network scalability. Radio has an
internal Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) error detection
logic and a data buffer, which reduces microcontroller
speed and time accuracy requirements. Antenna is
implemented with a quarter-wave external monopole
antenna due to good efficiency and omni-directional
radiation. Measured radio range is about 30 m.
The computing subsystem manages node operations
and executes sensor application. The subsystem consists
of a Xemics XE88LC02 MicroController Unit (MCU),
which integrates CoolRisc 816 processor core with a 16-
bit Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC), 22 KB program
memory and 1 KB data memory. Maximum instruction
execution speed is 2 MIPS. MCU is connected to an 8 KB
Microchip 25AA320 EEPROM for non-volatile data
memory. MCU is selected due to low 2.4 V supply
voltage, high 1344 MIPS/W energy efficiency, and
accurate ADC. Moreover, low 5 W sleep mode power
consumption, versatile timers and good availability are the
advances of the MCU.
The sensing subsystem gathers requested data from
node environment. The subsystem consists of a linear
position sensor and the ADC integrated with MCU. The
sensor utilizes a 5 k linear potentiometer. During
measurement, a constant voltage is applied over the
potentiometer and the deviation is determined by the wiper
voltage. ADC has pre-amplification and offset
compensation stages, which increase sampling accuracy.
The maximum sample rate using 16-bit resolution is 2
kHz.
time
Super
frame
Beacon
Cluster
channel
Access cycle
20 ms
Idle
Reservable ALOHA
Super
frame

Figure 2. TUTWSN access cycle and superframe.
Power
Subsystem
Voltage
Coverter
TPS71525
Communication
Subsystem
Battery
3V150
Radio
nRF2401
MCU
XE88LC02
Sensing
Subsystem
Computing
Subsystem
EEPROM
25AA320
ADC
16bit
Linear
Position
Sensor

Figure 3. WSN node prototype architecture.

The power subsystem utilizes three serially connected
150 mAh Varta V150H NiMH batteries achieving a 3.6 V
nominal voltage. The NiMH chemistry is selected due to
good energy density, cheap price and better robustness
against high temperatures and currents than lithium
chemistries. The battery voltage is converted down to 2.5
V supply voltage by a Texas Instruments TPS71525 linear
voltage regulator. The converter is selected due to low
electromagnetic interferences and quiescent current. These
are important, since proximity to other components is
short and the average current consumption is low.
Moreover, the converter is small and cheap. For the
required one month WSN node lifetime, the power
subsystem can deliver 208 A average current drain.
The WSN node prototype is implemented in a four-
layer FR-4 Printed Circuit Board (PCB), presented in
Figure 4. The top side of the prototype contains radio,
battery, programming connector, antenna and two
diagnostics LEDs. The bottom side contains MCU,
voltage regulator and a connector for the linear position
sensor. The prototype is enclosed in an aluminum casing
presented in Figure 5. The size of the prototype is 120 mm
x 25 mm x 25 mm. The connector for the linear position
sensor is also used for battery recharging.

4.2. WSN Gateway

A WSN gateway forms a bridge between WSN and an
analyzer PC using a RS-232 serial port.
The WSN gateway prototype architecture is presented
in Figure 6. The gateway utilizes the same MCU, radio
and antenna than the WSN node. These are selected due to
the high energy efficiency and radio compatibility with the
WSN node prototypes. RS-232 bus is accessed by a
Maxim MAX3381 RS-232 transceiver and a Universal
Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART) of MCU.
The required supply power is obtained directly from the
serial port; the power is rectified and filtered from Data
Terminal Ready (DTR) and Request to Send (RTS)
signals of RS-232. According to measurements, the these
signals deliver 12 V open circuit voltage and 5 mA to 10
mA short circuit current, depending on PC hardware. The
obtained voltage is converted down to 2.7 V supply
voltage by a Texas Instruments TPS71501 linear voltage
regulator.
The WSN gateway prototype is implemented in a four-
layer RF-4 PCB, presented in Figure 7. The upper side of
the prototype contains antenna, MCU, RS-232 transceiver,
RS-232 connector, filter capacitors and two diagnostics
LEDs. The bottom side contains radio, voltage rectifier
diodes, voltage regulator and programming connector. The
size of the prototype is 67 mm x 31 mm x 37 mm
including antenna.

4.3. User Application

The user application is executed in the analyzer PC for
presenting measured data graphically and for configuring
the measurements. There are no power switches available
on the prototypes itself, but the network is activated by the
user applications.
The user application is implemented in JAVA enabling
independence of underlying PC platform. The user
application is based on a Java Communication API. The
API supports RS-232 serial ports, and provides software
porting for Windows and Linux. Above the Java
Communications API, Swing provides User Interface (UI)
components, which are utilized for implementing a Sensor
UI.
A screenshot of the user application is presented in
Antenna
EEPROM
Sensor
connector
Radio
MCU
Voltage
regulator
Battery
Programming
connector
Diagnostics
LEDs

Figure 4. WSN node prototype.
Linear position
sensor
WSN node
prototype
Moving axis for
position measuring

Figure 5. Complete wireless linear position
sensor prototype consisting of a WSN node
attached to a position sensor.
Voltage
Coverter
TPS71501
Radio
nRF2401
MCU
XE88LC02
RS232
Driver
MAX3381
R
S
2
3
2

C
o
n
n
e
c
t
o
r

Figure 6. WSN gateway prototype architecture.

Figure 8. The application shows the current cluster
topologies on WSN, and the data routing paths. These are
updated constantly as the topology changes. Nodes are
presented as information boxes, which contain a node ID,
a logical node type (subnode or headnode), a sensor type
and a current sensor value. Sensor data can be presented
graphically for individual sensors or as jointed graph, as
presented in the figure.

5. Prototype Performance

Power performance is measured from the implemented
WSN node prototype. The measurements include static
power consumptions of the main components and an
average consumption while executing the wireless linear
position metering.

5.1. Power Analysis

The static power consumptions of the radio, MCU,
ADC and the linear position sensor are measured at
different operating modes. The MCU power consumption
is measured in an active mode, when the core is running
on 1.8 MIPS speed, and in a sleep mode, when only wake
up timer is active. The ADC and sensor power
consumptions are measured in active and shut down (off)
modes. The radio power consumption is measured in
various operation modes, including data loading between
MCU and the radio buffer.
Measurement were done at 3 V supply voltage
including power dissipation in the power subsystem. The
analysis results are presented in Table 1. The minimum
power consumption is 21 W, which is achieved when all
components are inactive. The maximum required power is
57.60 mW, when all components are active and radio is in
receive mode. In the implemented prototype, the radio
clearly dominates the momentary power consumption.
Particularly, radio receiving time is costly. The node
power consumption over doubles during reception
compared to transmission with the lowest -20 dBm
transmission power. The linear position sensor power
consumption is 960 W.

MCU
RS232
connector
RS232
transceiver
Radio
Antenna
Programming
connector
Voltage
regulator
Diagnostics
LEDs
Voltage
rectifiers
Filter
capacitors

Figure 7. WSN gateway prototype.

Figure 8. A screenshot of the user application.

5.2. Measurements

The average power consumptions are measured from a
set of implemented WSN node prototypes, which execute
the TUTWSN stack and the sensor application. For the
measurements, the logical types of nodes are fixed. The
routing protocol employs a strategy where routing is
dynamic, but the lowest cost route towards the WSN
gateway is established according to the physical positions
of the nodes. All WSN node prototypes sample their linear
position sensors at 1 Hz rate and route data to the WSN
gateway prototype using reservable data slots. For
achieving accurate time stamps, nodes execute a time
synchronization algorithm. The synchronization algorithm
loads the MCU notably, especially in headnodes. An
oscilloscope screenshot of the headnode and subnode
current waveforms are presented in Figure 10. The
waveforms present a 20 ms time period, which contains
ADC sampling, and TUTWSN data transmission and
acknowledgement reception. A peak current during
reception is about 20 mA.
For the measurements, a headnode and a subnode are
supplied by 1 F and 0.22 F super capacitors. The average
current consumptions are determined by measuring the
slopes of the capacitor terminal voltages. From the
obtained currents, power consumptions are calculated
using the 3.0 V supply voltage.
First, the average subnode and headnode power
consumptions were measured, while MAC access cycle
length is increased from 1 s to 10 s. Only one subnode is
associated on each headnode. The power consumption
results with maximum throughputs between headnodes are
presented in Figure 9. The minimum power is obtained
with 10 s access cycle, when subnode and headnode
power consumptions are 59.6 W and 302 W,
respectively. The available throughput is 102 bits/s. The
throughput is inversely proportional to the TDMA access
cycle length. With 1 s access cycle, throughput is
increased to 1024 bits/s, but the power consumptions of a
subnode and a headnode are raised to 249 W and 968
W, respectively. The average latency per hop is about a
half of the access cycle length.
Then, the average headnode power consumption was
measured, while the number of subnodes per each
headnode was increased from 1 to 5. The TUTWSN MAC
access cycle length is fixed to 2 s, which fulfills
application requirements in data rate and latency. As the
number of subnodes increase, the subnode power remains
in 162 W, but the headnode power consumption
increases. The resulted headnode and network average
power consumptions, and predicted WSN node lifetimes
are presented in Figure 11. The increase of subnodes per
headnode from 0 to 5 reduces the average node power
consumption from 400 W to 299 W and increase node
Table 1. WSN node prototype power analysis.

1.69
Off
0.021 Sleep
3.01
Off
3.06
Sleep
4.70 Data loading
26.46
Transmit data
(Power: -20 dBm)
39.73
Transmit data
(Power: 0 dBm)
57.60 Receive data
Active
Active
Active
Power
(mW)
Radio mode
Sensor
mode
ADC
mode
MCU
mode
1.69
Off
0.021 Sleep
3.01
Off
3.06
Sleep
4.70 Data loading
26.46
Transmit data
(Power: -20 dBm)
39.73
Transmit data
(Power: 0 dBm)
57.60 Receive data
Active
Active
Active
Power
(mW)
Radio mode
Sensor
mode
ADC
mode
MCU
mode
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
T
ac
(s)
P

(
W
)
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
H
e
a
d
n
o
d
e

t
h
r
o
u
g
h
p
u
t

(
b
p
s
)
Headnode power consumption
Subnode power consumption
Headnode throughput (right axis)

Figure 9. Power consumption and throughput
in function of TUTWSN MAC access cycle
length (1 subnode per headnode).
ADC
sampling
Data
transmission
Acknowledge
reception
Acknowledge
transmission
Data reception
Subnode
Headnode

Figure 10. Oscilloscope screenshot of the
headnode and subnode current waveforms
during ADC sampling, data transmission and
reception.

lifetime from 47 days to 63 days. The required 31 days
battery recharging interval is clearly exceeded regardless
the number of subnodes per headnode.
Practically, the number of subnodes per each headnode
is determined dynamically. To minimize energy
consumption and improve scalability, the number of
subnodes per headnode is maximized. The upper limit is
set by radio range and headnode loading. The proximity
between headnodes should be no more than ten meters.

6. Conclusions

A prototype WSN is implemented for industrial linear
position metering including two different hardware
prototypes and a user application. For reducing energy
consumption and improving scalability, a clustered
network topology is used. Yet, the rotation of the
headnode operation among nodes is needed to distribute
energy consumption more equally and increase network
lifetime. The measurements are carried out on a stable
network without network discovery operations. In
practice, interferences and node failures require occasional
network scanning operations, which increase headnode
power consumption around 100 W [14]. However,
required 31 days lifetime is clearly exceeded. Significantly
longer lifetime would be obtained using primary batteries.
For instance, two AA-type alkaline batteries would extend
node lifetime to 27 months.
Results indicate that WSN technology is matured
enough for real applications with high reliability
requirements. The design and tailoring of WSN protocols
according to the application is required for adequate
energy efficiency and performance. Also, careful platform
design and component selection for supporting protocol
operation is required.
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[14] M. Kohvakka, M. Hnnikinen, T. D. Hmlinen,
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Mobile Radio Communications, Germany, Sep. 2005, accepted.
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
0 1 2 3 4 5
P

(
W
)
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
W
S
N

n
o
d
e

l
i
f
e
t
i
m
e

(
d
a
y
s
)
Heanode power
Network average power
Network lifetime (right axis)

Figure 11. Headnode, subnode and network
average power consumptions in the function of
the number of subnodes per headnode (TUTWSN
access cycle length = 2 s).
PUBLICATION 10
M. Kohvakka, T. Arpinen, M. Hnnikinen, and T. D. Hmlinen, High-Performance
Multi-Radio WSN Platform, in Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on
Multi-hop Ad Hoc Networks: from theory to reality (REALMAN 2006), Florence,
Italy, May 26, 2006, Italy, pp. 9597.
ACM, 2006. Reprinted with Permission.

High-Performance Multi-Radio WSN Platform
Mikko Kohvakka
Technology
Computer Systems
+358 3 3115 4702
Tero Arpinen
Technology
Computer Systems
+358 3 3115 4588
tero.arpinen@tut.fi
Marko Hnnikinen
Technology
Computer Systems
+358 3 3115 3837
marko.hannikainen@tut.fi
Timo D. Hmlinen
Technology
Computer Systems
+358 3 3115 3385
timo.d.hamalainen@tut.fi

ABSTRACT
This paper presents the design and implementation of a unique
multi-radio Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) platform compared
to current WSN nodes that have only one radio interface. Four
independent, low energy radio transceivers allow simultaneous
reception and transmission to either another multi-radio WSN
node or up to four different WSN nodes. This also enables high
interference tolerance, low latency, and high mesh-networking
performance. The platform is based on synthesizable multi-
processor System-on-Chip implementation on FPGA. The radios
are compatible with ultra-low energy microcontroller based WSN
nodes, which can be freely mixed in the network. The platform
applicability is demonstrated by an ultra low latency WSN router
and high data rate file transfer applications. Theoretical hop delay
is as low as 106 s, while 3.3 Mbps network throughput is
achievable. Performance measurements for up to four parallel
Nios II softcore processors are also presented.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
B.4.1 [Input/Output and Data Communications]: Data
Communications Devices Processors, Receivers (e.g., voice,
data, image), Transmitters
General Terms
Design, experimentation, performance
Keywords
Wireless sensor network, platform, multi-radio, multi-processor.
1. INTRODUCTION
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are useful in many civil and
military applications [1]. WSNs may consist of thousands of fully
autonomous nodes, which gather and process data, and
communicate with each other using a dynamic multi-hop mesh
networking.
To save energy, it is reasonable to reduce the amount of
transferred data by data fusion in WSN nodes [1]. In addition,
applications like access control require data authentication and
encryption, such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
Although WSNs are usually considered as very low data rate
networks, there might occur areas with high data rate densities.
The combination of low power consumption with complex
computing and networking set very high challenges for the design
of hardware architecture, communication protocols and data
processing algorithms.
In this paper we present the design and implementation of a new
type of re-configurable WSN platform. It can be used as a router,
a multi-link node, a gateway, or high-performance backbone
network nodes for simpler WSNs.
The implemented platform utilizes up to four parallel radio
transceivers. The use of multiple radios increases significantly
network performance by allowing simultaneous data receptions
and transmissions with several neighbors. The radios are
compatible with simpler microcontroller based WSN nodes [2],
which can be freely mixed in the network. We also present
reference application architectures targeting to ultra low delay and
high data rate implementations.
This paper is organized as follows. The platform hardware is
presented in Section 2. Section 3 presents a multi-processor
architecture implemented on FPGA. Reference application
architectures for low delay and high throughput implementations
are presented in Section 4. Finally, conclusions are given in
Section 5.
2. HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION
The hardware architecture of the platform is presented in Figure
1. All the processing takes place on Altera Cyclone EP1C20 [3]
FPGA. The FPGA is large enough for implementing several
embedded processor cores, system memory, and custom hardware
accelerators. The Cyclone FPGA contains 20,060 Logic Elements
(LEs) and 294,912 bits of embedded dual-port RAM. These
resources are suited for implementing versatile multi-processor
architectures. Further, custom hardware accelerators can be
synthesized into the FPGA for accelerating functions that are
performed faster and with lower energy on dedicated logic than
on a processor.
Normally the FPGA configuration is loaded from an on-board

Copyright is held by the author/owner(s).
REALMAN'06, May 26, 2006, Florence, Italy.
ACM 1-59593-360-3/06/0005.
Radio
nRF2401
Processors and
custom logic
FPGA
Altera Cyclone
User
interface
I/O
interfaces
Battery
4xAA
Voltage
Coverter
2 x LM317
DC input
1.5V 3.3V
Radio
nRF2401
Radio
nRF2401
Radio
nRF2401

Figure 1. Platform hardware architecture.
95

flash memory on power up. Alternatively, Altera ByteBlaster is
used to configure the FPGA.
Wireless communication use four 2.4 GHz Nordic Semiconductor
nRF2401A [4] radio transceivers. The radios have 1 Mbps data
rate and 83 selectable frequency channels.
A User Interface (UI) consists of two push-buttons and LEDs, and
a 7-segment display. In addition, digital I/O interfaces are
provided for sensors, actuators and other network interfaces that
can be freely utilized for custom extensions.
The platform can operate as stand-alone node in the WSN, but it
can also be connected to a PC computer for debugging and
monitoring of internal operation. This is enabled by RS-232 serial
port. PC can also accommodate some of the WSN application or
protocol functionality especially during the development phase.
The platform is powered either by four AA-type batteries or a
mains power adapter, which is converted to 1.5 V and 3.3 V
supply voltages by two LM317 linear voltage regulators.
The multi-radio WSN platform is implemented with three
different types of printed circuit boards named as a mother board,
a radio board and an I/O board. The complete WSN platform is
presented in Figure 2. The platform size is 125 mm x 112 mm x
30 mm.
3. MULTI-PROCESSOR ARCHITECTURE
The implemented multi-processor architecture composed of
multiple Nios softcore processors is presented in Figure 3. Each
subsystem includes a Nios II core connected to a timer and UART
modules, and local data memory. The system peripherals are
connected together by Avalon switch fabric. The Inter-Processor
Communication (IPC) is performed via a shared memory. The
required memory footprint is reduced by using shared instruction
memory, and thus, the same program code for all the processors.
Data memory spaces are local for each processor. The UART
modules are connected to a UART multiplexer for sharing the
single physical RS-232 port. The architecture includes four
custom logic radio interface modules for accessing radio front-
ends on the platform board. The Nordic radios are used in
ShockBurst mode, when data framing and error detection are
covered by the radio circuitry. A centralized radio access
controller forwards data and interrupts between radio interfaces
and processors.
The processors are 32-bit Nios II fast cores with 512 bytes of
instruction cache. Table 1 lists the total number of used LEs and
on-chip memory (excluding program codes), maximum operating
frequency (F
max
), and measured current consumption, as the
number of processors is increased from 1 to 4. Due to limited
memory resources, architecture instances up to four processors
are preferred, and the unutilized LEs are allocated for custom
logic. The current consumption of the mother board is measured,
while executing a simple ROM-monitor program on the CPUs at
50 MHz. According to the measurements, the current consumed
by the FPGA is practically linearly dependent on the number of
the processors used. Moreover, radio current consumption is 18
mA in reception mode, and 13 mA in transmission mode (0 dBm).
4. REFERENCE APPLICATIONS
The multi-radio WSN platform enables radically new WSN
applications that have not been possible in the past. Four
independent, low energy radio transceivers allow simultaneous
reception and transmission to either another multi-radio WSN
node or up to four different WSN nodes. This gives low latency,
and high mesh-networking performance. High tolerance against
link errors can be achieved by transmitting redundant data in
different routes and frequency channels. It is also possible to use
even diverse radios in different frequency bands, e.g. 2.4 GHz and
433 MHz. The hardware re-configurability allows heterogeneous
platforms, where each node can be optimized for a unique task by
special hardware accelerators and processing architecture.
The applicability of the implemented platform is demonstrated by
two reference applications, which are targeting to minimize
routing latency, and to maximize routing throughput.
Ultra Low Latency Router
The aim of an ultra low latency WSN router realization is to
minimize the routing delays over established multi-hop paths. In
current WSN implementations, a hop delay may be very
significant due to data buffering and channel access delays. The
use of multiple hops makes thing worse, since the delay is
repeated on each hop. Hence, the realization of multi-hop WSNs
with high real-time performance has been very difficult.
Radio boards
I/O board
Mother board
Cyclone
device
Programming
connector
DC input
Battery terminals
(bottom side)
Power
switch
7-segment
display
Analog and
digital I/O
LEDs and
push-buttons

Figure 2. Implemented multi-radio WSN platform.
Nios II Data memory
Timer module
Shared instruction memory
Uart module
IPC memory
Radio access
controller
Radio
interface
Radio
interface
Radio
interface
Radio
interface
Cyclone FPGA
Nios II subsystem 1 Nios II subsystem 2
Nios II subsystem 3
Nios II subsystem n
UART
Multiplexer
From subsystems 2 - n
Avalon
connections
:

Figure 3. Implemented multi-processor architecture.
Table 1. Resource utilization for 1 to 4 CPUs.
NiosII
CPUs
Area
[LEs]
Area
[%]
Memory
[kB]
Memory
[%]
F
max

[MHz]
I
[mA]
1 3 966 19 2.5 7 85.58 149.9
2 6 988 34 5.5 15 71.92 233.3
3 9 686 48 8.5 24 67.78 280.7
4 12 463 62 11.0 31 60.00 338.3
96

Implemented WSN router operates in a mesh network, as
presented in Figure 4. To achieve highest throughput, a Frequency
Division Multiple Access (FDMA) MAC protocol is used. A
dedicated frequency channel for each radio link allows purely
simultaneous data exchanges with four neighboring nodes. Nodes
may establish multi-hop routing paths over the network, as from
Source node to Destination node presented in the Figure 4. We
present a method for delay minimization for established routing
paths by the use of multiple radios.
An auto-forwarding architecture that is implemented on a link
layer identifies the packets that need to be forwarded [5], and
redirects them to an appropriate parallel radio. The
implementation is well reasoned, since in typical sensor network
scenarios around 65% of all packets received by a sensor node
need to be forwarded [5]. An overview of the proposed link layer
operation is presented in Figure 5, where data from Node A is
forwarded to Node C through Node B by using two parallel radio
links (links 1 and 2). Data is transmitted in frames consisting of a
protocol header (H) and data payload (D). After a successful
reception of data, a recipient responds with an acknowledgement
(A). Node B can identify a data frame forwarded to Node C within
a time duration t
delay
, which consists of a radio wave propagation
time (t
prop
), a header reception time (t
H
), and a short header
decoding delay (t
dec
). Since parallel computing and
communication architecture is used, data frame forwarding may
begin right after t
delay
, thus, equaling the hop delay. With 96-bit
protocol header, 1 Mbps radio data rate, 30 m hop distance, and
10 s header decoding delay, a theoretical hop delay is 106 s.
High Data Rate File Transfer
The ultra low latency WSN router design can be extended for
high data rate applications by the use of multiple parallel routes.
By the use of four parallel transceivers the source node distributes
data to four neighbors, which route frames towards destination
node through four different routes, as presented in Figure 4. The
intermediate nodes utilize the presented low latency auto-
forwarding architecture.
Assuming FDMA-type MAC protocol with unique frequency
channels for each radio link, and acknowledged data exchanges,
the network throughput (T) can be estimated as

,
2
f H
f A sw
L L
T nR
L L t R
=
+ +
(1)
where L
f
, L
A
and L
H
are the lengths of a data and
acknowledgement frames, and a frame header, respectively, t
sw
is
the switch time between transmission and reception mode, n is the
number of parallel routes, and R is radio data rate. By selecting
96-bit frame header and acknowledge frame lengths, 3000 bits
frames, and 200 s radio mode switch time, theoretical throughput
without retransmissions is 3.3 Mbps.
As the both application examples require only two radios in the
intermediate nodes, the remaining the remaining two radios can
be used for another parallel route to improve routing in the mesh-
network, or for the transmission of FEC data to improve tolerance
against bit errors.
5. CONCLUSIONS
A new unique multi-radio WSN platform has been presented.
FPGA-based hardware allows re-configurability and performance
optimization for various applications. High flexibility is achieved
by the use of four independent and simultaneously accessible
radio transceivers. Simultaneous data exchange with multiple
neighbors can be used for minimizing hop delays, and for
multiplying network throughput. The platform gives excellent
opportunities to design and test new kind of WSN protocols,
algorithms and applications.
6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The platform will be available for research and development
purposes from Atific Oy, Finland.
REFERENCES
[1] H. Karl and A. Willig, Protocols and Architectures for
Wireless Sensor Networks, John Wiley & Sons Ltd.,
Chichester, 2005, pp. 1-13.
[2] M. Kohvakka, M. Hnnikinen, and Timo D. Hmlinen,
Ultra low energy wireless temperature sensor network
implementation, in Proc. PIMRC05, Germany, Sep 2005.
[3] Altera Corp. home page, Section 1, Cyclone FPGA Family
Data Sheet, August 2005, v1.3, Available:
http://www.altera.com, Feb 2006.
[4] Nordic Semiconductor ASA home page, Datasheet
nRF2401A_rev1_0, December 2004, v1.0, Available:
http://www.nordicsemi.no, Feb 2006.
[5] V. Tsiatsis, S. Zimbeck and M. Srivastava, Architectural
strategies for energy efficient packet forwarding in wireless
sensor networks, in Proc. ISLPED01, California, USA,
Aug 2001, pp. 92-95.
Source
Destination

Figure 4. Analyzed mesh network topology.
Link 2 Link 1
Node A Node B Node C
H
A H
D
D
A H
H
D
D
H
H
D
D A
A H
H
D
D
Link 1:
Node A
Node B
Link 2:
Node B
Node C
t
dec
t
sw
t
sw
t
A
t
H
t
delay
t
prop
t
f

Figure 5. Link layer operation.
97

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