Markov-Chain Analysis Model based Active Period Adaptation Scheme for IEEE 802.15.4 Network

Energy efficiency is one of the critical issues for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). IEEE 802.15.4 beacon-enabled MAC protocol achieves low energy consumption by having periodical inactive portions, where nodes run in low power. However, IEEE 802.15.4 beacon-enabled protocol cannot respond to dynamic changes in the number of sensor nodes and data rates in WSN because its duty cycle is fixed and immutable. In this paper, we propose a dynamic superframe duration adaptation scheme based on the Markov chain-based analysis methods for IEEE 802.15.4 beacon-enabled protocol. The proposed methods are flexible enough to accommodate changes in the number of sensor nodes and differences in data rates in WSNs while maintaining low latency and low energy consumption despite slight degradation in packet delivery ratio.