Enhanced Beacon-Enabled Mode for improved IEEE 802.15.4 low data rate performance

This paper proposes enhancements to IEEE 802.15.4 Beacon-Enabled Mode that provide improved network performance and lower power consumption for low data rate applications. The proposed mode utilizes a Synchronous Low Power Listening technique that allows nodes to sleep for multiple Beacon Intervals and subsequently recover Beacon synchronization in a power efficient manner. The proposed mode also incorporates a Periodic Wakeup scheme that allows nodes to transmit at scheduled times during the inactive period. The proposed Enhanced Mode is backward compatible and inter-operable with the original standard. Simulation results show that the proposed Enhanced Mode reduces the power consumption overhead of synchronization by more than 50% for applications with low data rates compared with standard Beacon-Enabled mode. End-to-end delay and packet loss rate are reduced by more than 90% compared with standard Beacon-Enabled mode. The proposal can adapt to the change of traffic load, and prolong the lifetime of the PAN Coordinator by 1-5 times compared to standard Beacon Enabled mode.