Modeling and Simulation of Energy Efficient Enhancements for IEEE 802.15.4e DSME Silvia Capone ∗ , Riccardo Brama ∗ , Fabio Ricciato † , Gennaro Boggia ‡ and Angelo Malvasi ∗ ∗ CMC Labs, a division of CMC S.r.l. Contrada Pagliarulo SN 72012 Carovigno (BR), Italy Email: {s.capone, r.brama, a.malvasi}@cmclabs.com † University of Salento, Lecce, Italy. Email: fabio.ricciato@unisalento.it ‡ DEI, Politecnico di Bari, Italy. Email: g.boggia@poliba.it Abstract—Wireless sensor networks are drawing much atten- tion as an effective mean to enable the Internet of Things. In this context, energy efficiency is an important issue to meet in applications where battery-powered sensing devices are exploited. Battery power saving can be addressed using many techniques, concerning different layers of the OSI model. This work addresses energy request in MAC protocols from a transceiver usage perspective. We first describe a set of protocols that includes IEEE 802.15.4 and IEEE 802.15.4e DSME. Then, we analyze their energy consumption and propose a set of Enhancements for Low-Power Instrumentation DSME Applications. Finally, given a wireless network topology, we compare the performance of the above mentioned protocols by simulations. Obtained results show that, for end devices, the proposed approach allows an energy consumption reduction up to a factor of 9 with respect to the IEEE 802.15.4, while enabling for higher throughput, and up to a factor of 7 with regard to native IEEE 802.15.4e DSME. I. I NTRODUCTION Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) allow to gather a huge range of information enabling a thorough and continuous monitoring of both indoor and outdoor areas. Since wireless sensors could be spread on the field, or located in very hard to reach positions, researchers focused particular attention on developing energy-efficient communication protocols to extend their lifetime avoiding unnecessary maintenance. Low-power Personal Area Networks (PANs) have been addressed by IEEE 802.15.4 standard [1]; the last edition of this standard, i.e. IEEE 802.15.4-2011 [2], supports a variety of physical specifications allowing its adoption vir- tually in every application. Recently, the introduction of the IEEE 802.15.4e-2012 amendment has enhanced the Medium Access Control (MAC) functionalities in order to support the industrial market [3]. Three different MAC operation modes are supported: Deterministic and Synchronous Multi-channel Extension (DSME), Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH), and Low Latency Deterministic Network (LLDN). The main advantage of improved version of the IEEE 802.15.4 is to overcome limitations of the standard protocol for industrial applications, especially with regard to real-time operation, throughput and reliability [4], [5]. In particular way, DSME approach is attractive due to its flexibility, enabling trading latency, throughput, and efficiency as needed by appli- cation. Time synchronization, in this case, is realized by means of broadcast beacons, allowing each device to keep track and correct clock drifts. Moreover, by using frequency multiplex- ing, DSME increases throughput making this approach suitable for cluster-tree, multi-hop sensor networks [6] and it also enhances WSN reliability under WLAN interference [7]. Designing network solutions for industrial market, it is quite usual to deal with applications where the network traffic is destination-oriented [8]. Measurements, collected by remote wireless sensors, need to be harvested by a single device be- having as a Wireless Network Access Point (WNAP). Wireless sensors are usually battery-powered and could be installed in harsh environments not easily accessible; WNAPs are mains- powered, thus are not necessarily power constrained. In all these applications prolonged lifetimes, straightforward instal- lation and reliability are the paramount challenges. Despite DSME seems the most suitable MAC in such scenarios, it still lacks of solutions optimizing its power consumption. In this paper we propose a method called Enhancements for Low-Power Instrumentation DSME Applications (ELPIDA). While keeping main features of IEEE 802.15.4e DSME MAC protocol, i.e. bounded delay, high throughput, scalability and standard compliancy too, this approach shows an improvement of power consumption without introducing extra overhead or long latency. The unique request to enable ELPIDA low-power strategies is that every frame needs to be always acknowledged by receiver through proper ACK frames. The proposed approach aims to rationalize network power consumption, minimizing it for wireless sensors (where energy availability is poor) and shifting it towards WNAPs. We will show that in cluster-tree networks, where traffic is generated by end devices and directed towards a single sink, power consumption of end devices can be dramatically decreased by means ELPIDA method, keeping high the network reliability. ELPIDA has been implemented 1 and evaluated by means of OPNET simulations. This paper is organized as follows: in Sec.II we detail IEEE 802.15.4 and DSME protocols as a background for Sec.III in which we present the proposed ELPIDA. Sec.IV reports measured energy profile of CC2520 transceiver. In Sec.V we introduce the simulation scenario and analyze results 1 Models for both IEEE 802.15.4e DSME and ELPIDA protocols will be made available at www.cmclabs.com. 978-1-4799-1297-1/14/$31.00 c  2014 IEEE