Multichannel access for bandwidth improvement in IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new multichannel allocation protocol for ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 networks. The main goal is to improve the global throughput which is basically insufficient to satisfy high bandwidth requirements for applications like monitoring or traffic control. The solution is based on the availability of multiple channels on current lowcost, low-energy radio transceivers, such as CC2420, which can be easily tuned dynamically to different frequencies. This possibility can be exploited to increase the number of simultaneous transmissions on adjacent links. The allocation of the different channels is centralized and distributed by the coordinator thanks to a function designed to compute the channel offset between two successive children routers. In the nodes, the switching process between the transmission and the reception channels is triggered starting from the PHY primitive available on the transceiver. The evaluation shows that the proposed protocol improves the global throughput by a factor between 2 and 5, depending on the scenario, compared to the single-channel solution or a random channel allocation.

HMC-MAC Protocol for High Data Rate Wireless Sensor Networks

“…In [6] authors propose MASN, a new multi-channel allocation protocol for hierarchical ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 networks corresponding to realistic situations where the number of nodes is less than 50 with a hierarchical routing and many-to-one transmissions. The main goal is to improve the bandwidth.…”

On the influence of the hidden and exposed terminal problems on asynchronous IEEE 802.15.5 networks

“…Under these circumstances, we highlight several challenges that a well-designed multichannel access protocol must satisfy accurately. These challenges have been grouped (according to different technical aspects) as follows: channel assignment (fixed or dynamic), coordination between nodes (both sender and receiver nodes tune to the same channel simultaneously to conduct the transmission), ET and HT problems, channel switching delay (switching duration in CC2420 radio transceivers is estimated in 200 μs [32,33]), broadcast support, or a new concern emerged by employing multi-channel switching, which is denoted as deafness (a sender node transmitting to a receiver node which is tuned to a different channel, so the receiver is unable to detect the incoming transmission).…”

“…In order to deal with the aforementioned challenges, Lohier et al [33] proposed a multi-channel assignment protocol for IEEE 802.15.4. This approach can be considered as an extension of the Tree-based Multi-Channel Protocol (TMCP) [29], where each branch of a multihop tree topology is assigned a fixed channel by the root.…”

“…To overcome these shortcomings, the work in [33] allows all nodes of a same tree-branch to be configured to different channels. Every node employs one channel for transmission and a different one for reception.…”

QoS driven distributed multi-channel scheduling MAC protocol for multihop WSNs

“…Lohier et al, [17] proposed a Multichannel Access for Sensor Networks (MASN) protocol that improves the global throughput to satisfy high bandwidth requirements for applications like monitoring or traffic control. It uses multiple channels on current low-cost, low-energy radio transceivers to increase the number of parallel transmissions between different pairs of transceivers.…”