IEEE 802.15.4 Technology
Introduction
Low-cost, low-data-rate wireless access technology for battery-operated devices is IEEE 802.15.4. This explains the operation of low-rate wireless personal area networks or LR-WPANs.
IEEE 802.15.4e:
IEEE 802.15.4e enhances the standard by introducing features such as channel hopping, multichannel communication, and time-slotted access, aimed at improving network efficiency and versatility.
The following general functional enhancements are introduced by IEEE 802.15.4e:
1. Low Energy (LE): Applications able to exchange latency for energy efficiency are the target audience for this technique. It allows a node to run at an extremely low-duty cycle.
2. Elements of Information (IE): At the MAC sublayer, it is an extendable framework for information sharing.
3. Enhanced Beacons (EB): Offering more versatility, Enhanced Beacons expand the 802.15.4 beacon frames. Making application-specific frames is possible with them.
4. Multipurpose Frame: This mechanism offers an adaptable frame format that can handle various MAC functions. It is predicated on Internet Explorers.
5. MAC Performance Metric: This is a way to give networking and higher layers the proper input on the channel quality to make the right decisions.
6. Rapid Assemblies (RapidA): The 802.15.4 association mechanism adds a substantial delay to preserve energy. Energy efficiency is secondary to latency for applications that must be completed on time.
IEEE 802.15.4e has five additional MAC behaviour modes defined:
IEEE 802.15.4e defines five additional MAC behavior modes, including Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH), DSME, LLDN, BLINK, and AMCA, catering to diverse application domains such as industrial automation, process control, tracking, and infrastructure monitoring.
1. Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH): Using a TDMA technique, it supports multi-hop and multichannel communications and is aimed at application domains, including industrial automation and process control.
2. DSME: The goal of Deterministic and Synchronous Multi-channel Extension (DSME) is to facilitate the use of DSME in commercial and industrial settings.
3. LLDN: Single-hop and single-channel networks are the target audience for the Low Latency Deterministic Network (LLDN).
4. Identification of Radio Frequencies Blink (BLINK): It is designed for application domains like tracking, location, and item/person identification.
5. Asynchronous multi-channel adaptation (AMCA): This technology is intended for application domains like process control, infrastructure monitoring, and smart utility networks where extensive deployments are necessary.
Properties
1. Alliances and standardization: It outlines the MAC layer and low-data-rate PHY specifications for wireless personal area networks (WPAN).
IEEE 802.15 - List of Protocol Stacks:
ZigBee: ZigBee is a low rate task group 4 Personal Area Network task group. It's a home networking technology. A technology standard called ZigBee was developed for network sensing and control. Since ZigBee is the Personal Area network of Task Group 4, it was developed by the Zigbee Alliance and is based on IEEE 802.15.4.
6LoWPAN: Wireless sensor networks are among the many uses for the 6LoWPAN architecture. IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks is the moniker given to this type of wireless sensor network, which uses IPv6 and transmits data in packets.
ZigBee IP: Designed for low-cost and low-power wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) and internet of things (IoT) networks, Zigbee is a standards-based wireless technology.
ISA100.11a: This mesh network offers process control users safe wireless connectivity.
Wireless HART: Another wireless sensor network technique that uses self-organizing and time-synchronized architecture is called wireless HART.
Thread: Thread is an IEEE 802.15 wireless mesh network's IPv6-based networking technology for low-power Internet of Things devices. Each thread is autonomous.
2. Physical Layer: A variety of PHY alternatives in ISM bands, from 2.4 GHz to sub-GHz frequencies, are made possible by this standard. Data transfer rates of 20 kilobits per second, 40 kilobits per second, 100 kilobits per second, and 250 kilobits per second are made possible by IEEE 802.15.4. The basic design makes the assumption that the distance is 10 meters and the data rate is 250 kilobits per second. Even lower data rates are feasible in order to further minimize power consumption. At the physical layer, IEEE 802.15.4 controls the RF transceiver, channel selection, and even a few aspects of energy and signal management. Six PHYs are now specified based on the required data throughput and frequency range. Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) frequency hopping techniques are used by four of them. To preserve a shared, basic interface with MAC, the PHY data service and management service use a single packet structure.
3. MAC layer: By finding out which devices in the same area will share the allocated frequencies, the MAC layer establishes a connection to the PHY channel. This layer is also responsible for managing packet scheduling and routing. The 802.15.4 MAC layer is in charge of many functions, including:
- beaconing for hardware used in a network as controllers.
- utilized to employ devices to associate and disassociate PANs.
- the device's safety.
- reliable communication in a peer-to-peer link between two MAC devices.
The MAC layer performs these tasks using a number of recognized frame types. There are four distinct MAC frame types in 802.15.4:
- data frame
- Beacon frame
- Structure of Recognition
- Structure for MAC directives
4. Topology: IEEE 802.15.4-based networks can be designed with a mesh, peer-to-peer, or star topology. Numerous nodes are connected using mesh networks. This allows nodes that would not normally be able to communicate with one another to employ intermediary nodes as a means of data relaying.
5. Security: The IEEE 802.15.4 standard uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) as the foundational encryption method, with a 128-bit key length. Enabling these security protocols for 802.15.4 modifies the frame format considerably and utilizes some of the payloads. The Security Enabled field in the Frame Control section of the 802.15.4 header must be used in order to initiate AES encryption. This field is a single bit that is assigned to 1 for safety's sake. When this bit is set, the Source Address field is followed by a field called the Auxiliary Security Header, which is created by extracting specific bytes from the Payload field.
6. Competitive Technologies: Different networking profiles that function in various IoT access scenarios are based on the IEEE 802.15.4 PHY and MAC layers. A rival radio system that has different MAC and PHY layers is called DASH7.
The benefits of IEEE 802.15.4
- Inexpensive
- long-lasting battery
- easy to install
- simple
- extensible protocol stack
Drawback of IEEE 802.15.4
- Multipath fading and interference are caused by IEEE 802.15.4.
- does not use a frequency-hopping strategy.
- Unlimited latency sensitivity to interference
The uses of IEEE 802.15.4
- Wireless sensor networks in industries.
- Automation of buildings and homes
- Playthings that interact and remote controls
- Vehicle networks