Energy saving algorithms for wireless sensor communications:: The aeronautical case study

This paper describes asynchronous Medium Access Control strategies based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard applied to wireless sensing in aeronautical environments. Main requirements are non-active transmission, long battery lifetime and short response time as well as security and data integrity. Sensor data is acquired periodically and collected on request, by means of a mobile wireless device. The network is organized in a star topology and behaves following the master-slave model. The slaves wait for a request from the master instead of sending data spontaneously. This is specially interesting in Electro-Magnetic sensitive environments like the aeronautical and has the advantage that does not 'pollute' the already crowded 2.45 GHz spectrum, reducing collisions. The master could be mobile and be rarely in range, therefore can not synchronize with all the sensors installed in a broad and distributed environment. In that case, smart asynchronous data transmission strategies are needed to guarantee the specified response time while consuming minimum energy.