Chapter 2

Design Methodologies of WSN

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1. MAC, Scheduling, and Transmission
• Many of the hard challenges in wireless sensor
networks exist at the lowest layers of the
communications protocol stack.
• Wireless links are inherently shared. Three options
for sharing:
– First, signals on different links can be made orthogonal to
each other ( different frequency bands or different codes
as in code division multiple access (CDMA) systems.)
• performance of each link is independent In normal
conditions.
• interference limited and cause communication to degrade
when exceeding a bounded number of users
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• Second, signals on different links can be shared in
time using time division multiple access (TDMA)
– each user has sole access to a link for a period of time
during which no other node will transmit.
– require some schedule of transmission to be
established either before a network is deployed or in
real time.
– In real time, the schedule can be established for the
duration of a data transfer or for each burst of data.
– By dividing the time unequally among the nodes
sharing the link, QoS differentiation can be provided.
– Are limited in capacity by the amount of time they can
allocate to each user.

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• Third, media access can be contention based.
– In these systems when a node desires to use a link, it
must compete with other nodes for the right to
transmit.
– There are many protocols defined to resolve these
contentions.
– These systems have the benefit of being very simple:
They are completely distributed and do not require
much control information to be passed between nodes.
– They typically work very well at low loads but struggle
at high loads to maintain high link utilizations and
provide fairness among nodes.
– Affect power consumption of the nodes.
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 Performance Study of IEEE 802.15.4
• IEEE 802.15.4 is a new standard uniquely designed
for Wireless Medium Access Control (MAC) and
Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications for Low Rate
Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPANs)
– It targets low data rate, low power consumption, and low
cost wireless networking and offers device-level wireless
connectivity.
– In beacon-enabled mode, an LR-WPAN can be flexibly
configured to meet different needs, such as link failure
self-recovery and low duty cycle.
– association and tree formation proceed smoothly, and the
network can shape up efficiently by itself.
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Description of IEEE 802.15.4
• Defines the PHY and MAC sub layer specifications for
LR-WPANs among relatively simple devices in the
personal operating space (POS) of 10 m or less.
• An 802.15.4 network can simply be a one-hop star, or,
• when lines of communication exceed 10 m, a self-
configuring, multi-hop network.
– A single 802.15.4 network can accommodate up to 64k
(216) devices.
– Wireless links under 802.15.4 can operate in three license-
free industrial scientific medical (ISM) frequency bands.
These accommodate over air data rates of
• 250 kb/s (or expressed in symbols, 62.5 ksym/s) in the 2.4-
GHz band,
• 40 kb/s (40 ksym/s) in the 915-MHz band, and
• 20 kb/s (20 ksym/s) in the 868-MHz band.

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• A total of 27 channels are allocated in 802.15.4, with
16 channels in the 2.4-GHz band, 10 channels in the
915-MHz band, and 1 channel in the 868-MHz band.
• Employs a fully handshake protocol for data transfer
reliability and embeds the advanced encryption
standard for secure data transfer.
The PHY Layer
• The PHY layer provides an interface between the
MAC sub layer and the physical radio channel.
• The PHY layer is responsible for the following tasks:
– Activation and Deactivation of the Radio Transceiver: Turn the
radio transceiver into one of the three states, that is,
transmitting, receiving, or off (sleeping) according to the
request from the MAC sub layer.

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– Energy Detection (ED) Within the Current Channel: It is an
estimate of the received signal power within the
bandwidth of an IEEE 802.15.4 channel.
– Link Quality Indication (LQI) for Received Packets : is
performed for each received packet by using ED, a signal-
to-noise ratio, or a combination of these.
– Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) for Carrier Sense
Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA-CA): is
performed to check if the medium is busy using ED, carrier
sense, or a combination of these two.
– Channel Frequency Selection: Wireless links can operate
in 27 different channels and the PHY layer tune its
transceiver into a certain channel upon receiving the
request from the MAC sub layer.

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– Data Transmission and Reception: This is the essential
task where modulation and spreading techniques are
used.
• The 2.4-GHz PHY layer employs a quasi-orthogonal
modulation technique in which each four information bits
are mapped into a 32-chip pseudo-random noise (PN)
sequence.
The PN sequences for successive data symbols are then
concatenated and modulated onto the carrier using offset
quadrature phase shift keying (O-QPSK).
• The 868/915 MHz PHY employs direct sequence spread
spectrum (DSSS) with binary phase shift keying (BPSK)
Each data symbol is mapped into a 15-chip PN sequence,
and the concatenated PN sequences, are then modulated
onto the carrier using BPSK with raised cosine pulse shaping.

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The MAC Sub layer:
• Provides an interface between the Service-Specific
Convergence Sub layer (SSCS)and the PHY layer.
• The MAC sub layer is responsible for :
– Generating Network Beacons If the Device Is a Coordinator :
A coordinator can determine whether to work in a beacon-
enabled mode in which a superframe structure is used.
– The superframe is bounded by network beacons and divided
into aNumSuperframeSlots (default value 16) equally sized
slots.
– Synchronizing to the Beacons : A device attached to a
coordinator operating in a beacon enabled mode can track
the beacons to synchronize with the coordinator. This
synchronization is important for data polling, energy saving,
and detection of orphaning.
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– Supporting Personal Area Network (PAN) Association and
Disassociation: embeds association and disassociation
functions for self-configuration.
– To enable a star setup automatically and also allows for
the creation of a self-configuring, peer-to-peer network.
– Employing the Carrier Sense Multiple Access with
Collision Avoidance (CSMA-CA) Mechanism for Channel
Access
– Handling and Maintaining the Guaranteed Time Slot
(GTS) Mechanism: allocate portions of the active
superframe to a device, GTSs, that comprise the
contention free period (CFP) of the superframe in a
beacon-enabled mode
– Providing a Reliable Link Between Two Peer MAC Entities
: employs frame acknowledgment and retransmission as
well as data verification 11
• The suitability of 802.15.4 for large data transfer is
limited.
– The frame length is limited to 127 Byte of payload.
– A realistic payload is around 80 Byte, when using extended
addressing and full security information.
– Additional Bytes may be needed in higher network layers.
The small packet size causes a lot of fragmentation for
transferring big data.

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ZigBee
• ZigBee is a suite of high level communication
protocols for small, low-power digital radios.
• It sits on top of the layers of the IEEE 802.15.4
standard.
• Therefore ZigBee uses the free ISM bands and
operates with a radio output power of 1 mW and a
range from 10 to 100 m can be achieved.
• The ZigBee standard provides three types of devices:
– The ZigBee Coordinator (ZC) is the most powerful device,
which maintains and coordinates the network with overall
network knowledge.

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 – The ZigBee Router (ZR) works as a router in the network
by passing on data.
– The ZigBee End Device (ZED) only has limited
functionalities to safe cost and complexity. It just reports
to his parent device node.
• ZigBee provides two network modes: a non-beacon
CSMA mode and a beacon-enabled mode with
Guaranteed Time Slots.

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Bluetooth/IEEE 802.15.1
• Bluetooth is designed to be a low-cost, medium-
power, robust, short-range communication protocol
for wireless links to replace cables (RS-232) for
mobile phones and computers.
• Bluetooth also uses the worldwide free 2.4 GHz ISM
band.
• It covers in comparison to the 802.15.4 standard a
whole product including radiofrequency transceiver,
baseband and protocol stack.
• So it might be comparable to ZigBee running on
802.15.4.

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• The transfer range of Bluetooth differs with the used
Bluetooth class, it is: 1, 10 or up to 100 m.

• Bluetooth allows data rates of 1 Mb/s in version 1.2

and up to 3 Mb/s in Version 2.0 with Enhanced Data
Rate (EDR). Bluetooth Version 4.0 supports Bluetooth
Low Energy and a High Speed specification.
• The Bluetooth radio is designed for busy
environments with lots of users.
– The network topology consists of clusters. Up to eight
devices join a Piconet.
– One device is the master of a Piconet, the others are slave
devices. 17
– Piconets can connect together as Scatternets. The seven
slaves of a Piconet are in active communication with the
master.
– Up to another 248 (= 256 - 8) slaves can work passively,
while listing for the synchronization with the master, but
they can become active at any time

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• Bluetooth uses 79 different 1 MHz wide channels
– and can avoid interference with other ISM devices (either
802.11, 802.15.4 or other Bluetooth devices) by using
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS).
– The carrier switching is controlled by the Piconet master.
• Bluetooth also provides adaptive power control,
Channel Quality Driven Data Rate (CQDDR) and
Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH). Bluetooth has
the advantage that
– it can communicate directly with many laptops or smart
phones and is a widely accepted standard in industry.
– its higher data rate allows live audio streaming.
• A clear disadvantage is the higher energy
consumption in comparison to 802.15.4.
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Wi-Fi/IEEE 802.11
• Is commonly known as Wi-Fi or Wireless LAN and has
a theoretical data rate up to 11 Mb/s (802.11b) or 54
Mb/s (802.11a, g), but is much more power
consuming than the already discussed standards.
• It is widely spread in today’s usage and therefore
nodes can be included into existing networks.
• However, IEEE 802.11 is quite improper for small
wireless nodes because
– of its high energy consumption, the complex network stack
and expensive hardware units.
– the usage requires an embedded computer and seems
therefore improper for the classical idea of small, low-cost
and battery-driven nodes.
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2. Hardware of the Sensor Node
Design procedure.
• Choose the hardware components according to the
application requirements.
• Determine the interface according to the chosen
components and layout of connector module.
• Design the schematic diagram according to the
chosen components and interface.
• Design the PCB diagram according to the schematic
diagram and the expansion board’s requirements.
• Debug the new design modules.
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Basic Architecture of the Hardware

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The Connector Module

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Example: Serial port schematic

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Main board of the sensor node

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The Software Framework of Sensor Node
• Operations of Interfaces
in the Connector Module
(I2C, I/O Simulating Port,
ADC, Serial Port, SPI )
• Adaptive Data Processing
– Detection of Sensory Data
Changing
– Priority Setting for
Different Sensors

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 3. Power Consumption and Battery Life

• Two mechanisms are used to reduce the overall

power consumption. These are power scheduling
and wakeup circuit.
• The first one is implemented fully by the micro-
controller unit (MCU) in order to switch on/off all the
system units.
• The other is a wakeup circuit designed to interrupt
the MCU when it is in the sleep mode and the sensor
samples are changing significantly.

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Example: for capacitive and inductive sensor

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• The sensor signal conditioning circuits can be switched on or
off by the control signals of the processor unit. A CMOS
analog switch is used for this purpose.

• At any one time, the mote system is configured to read either

resistive or capacitive samples.
• For the resistive interface, mote is powering on/off for each
sample (high current (15 mA) and low start-up time (~1 ms).
• The capacitive interface will be left on constantly when being
used ( large start-up time of about 200 ms and draws already
a very low current (~400 μA).
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• For further power consumption reduction, a wakeup
circuit, which allows the processor to enter sleep
mode while capacitive readings are not changing, has
been developed.

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Power consumption

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Node Power Consumption experiment

– Put both the microcontroller and transceiver in deep power

down mode when there is no data transmission (6 µA.)
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• Duty cycle chosen so that all the sensors provide
frequent useful data and at the same time guarantee
low power operation when there is no activity.

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Estimate sensor node lifetime

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 4. Selection criteria
4.1. Source and sink(Base station MCU)

Additionally for the base station (ADC or low-power (X), RTC (Real
Time Clock), RS232 communication.
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4.2. Wireless communication
• Type of wireless technology
• low power consumption
• Devices that are not actively transmitting should be
either in receive or polling mode depending on the
power restrictions of the device.
• Transceiver band and modulation technique.
• completely configurable under the control of
software for many frequency bands and signal
strengths

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4.3. Protocol standards: The following criteria can be
used:
• Multiple Node Support:
– Bi-directional Communication
– Addressing each node in the network individually.
• Efficiency:
– Overhead (Number of headers that must be added to data
packets).
– Complexity – Higher protocol complexity means more processor
cycles needed to send a message
• Transmission Control support:
– Error-Detecting/Correcting Codes
– Collision Detection
– Message Queuing 37