Wireless Protocols for IoT : IEEE

802.15.4 Wireless Personal Area

Networks
 Overview

1. Internet of Things and Wireless Protocols for IoT

2. IEEE 802.15.4: Topologies, MAC, PHY
3. IEEE 802.15.4e Enhancements
Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs)

Wide Area Network (WAN)

802.16e 802.20 802.21 802.22 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 4G,
Nomadic Mobile Handoff WRAN 5G Cellular

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

802.16/WiMAX Fixed Wireless MAN, LTE/4G/5G

Local Area Network (LAN)

802.11 Wi-Fi

Personal Area Network (PAN)

802.15.1 802.15.4 802.15.6
Bluetooth ZigBee Body Area Networks
WPAN: Design Challenges
q Battery powered: Maximize battery life.
A few hours to a few years on a coin cell.
q Dynamic topologies: Short-duration connections, and then the
device is turned off or goes to sleep
q No infrastructure
q Avoid Interference due to larger powered LAN devices
q Simple and Extreme Interoperability: Billions of devices.
More variety than LAN or MAN
q Low-cost: A few Rupees
 IEEE 802.15 Projects
q IEEE 802.15.1-2005: Bluetooth 1.2
q IEEE 802.15.2-2003: Coexistence Recommended Practice
q IEEE 802.15.3-2016: High Rate (55 Mbps) Multimedia WPAN, includes 3c-
2009 mm wave PHY, 3b-2005 High rate WPAN
q IEEE 802.15.3d-2017: 100 Gbps point-to-point PHY
q IEEE 802.15.3e-2017: High-Rate close proximity point-to-point MAC and
PHY
q IEEE 802.15.3f-2017: High-rate wireless multi-media networks using mm
waves
q IEEE 802.15.4a-2007: Precision Ranging
q IEEE 802.15.4c-2009: Chinese 314-316, 430-434, 779-787 MHz
q IEEE 802.15.4d-2009: Japanese 950 MHz
q IEEE 802.15.4e-2012: MAC Enhancements
q IEEE 802.15.4f-2012: PHY for Active RFID
 IEEE 802.15 Projects (Cont)
q IEEE 802.15.4g-2012: PHY for Smart Utility Networks
q Can 802.15 and 802.11 (or any other wireless
q IEEE 802.15.4j-2013: Medical Body Area Network 2.36-2.4 GHz technology) interfere with each other? Especially in
the case where one device supports multiple
wireless technology?
q IEEE 802.15.4k-2013: Low Energy Critical Infrastructure Monitoring PHY Yes, they interfere. If a single device implements multiple
protocols, then it has internal mechanisms to avoid
q IEEE 802.15.4m-2014: TV White Spaces PHY – between 56 MHz and 862 interfering. There are some mechanisms to avoid
external interference. Mostly by retransmissions.
MHz
q IEEE 802.15.4n-2016: China Medical Band PHY
q IEEE 802.15.4p-2014: Rail (Train) Communications & Control PHY
q IEEE 802.15.4-2015: Low Rate (250kbps) WPAN – ZigBee
q IEEE 802.15.4md: Maintenance of IEEE 802.15.4-2015
q IEEE 802.15.4q-2016: Ultra Low Power PHY
q IEEE 802.15.4s-2018: System resource management capability
q IEEE 802.15.4t-2017: High rate (2 Mbps) PHY
 IEEE 802.15 Projects (Cont)
q IEEE 802.15.4u-2016: 865-867 MHz band in India
q IEEE 802.15.4v-2017: Enabling use of regional sub-GHz bands (4n, 4q, 4t, Student Questions
4u)
q IEEE P802.15.4w: Low-Rate Low-Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN)
extension to 802.15.4 PHY to cover 10-15 km
q IEEE P802.15.4x: Field Area Network extensions for devices with no battery
or very limited battery consumption (Smart Utility Network)
q IEEE P802.15.4y: Security next generation using AES-256
q IEEE P802.15.4z: Enhanced impulse radio Ultra-Wide Band (UWB)
q IEEE 802.15.5-2009: Mesh Networking. Full/partial meshes. Range
Extension
q IEEE 802.15.6-2012: Body Area Networking. Medical and entertainment.
Low power
q IEEE 802.15.7-2011: Short-Range Optical Wireless
 IEEE 802.15 Projects (Cont)
q IEEE P802.15.7r1: Optical wireless (infrared, ultraviolet, visible light)
q IEEE P802.15.7m: Maintenance of 802.15.7-2011 q Some IEEE standards have a P as a prefix,
like P802.15.13. What does the P prefix
q IEEE 802.15.8-2017: Peer Aware Communications signify?
P=Project Þ Under development
q IEEE 802.15.9-2016: Key Management Support
q IEEE 802.15.10-2017: Routing packets in dynamically changing wireless
networks
q IEEE P802.15.10a: Routing mode additions. Automated discovery of nodes
and route configuration
q IEEE P802.15.12: Upper Layer Interface (ULI) to harmonize fragmentation,
configuration, etc. for all 802.15.4 (Upper L2 and interface to L3)
q IEEE P802.15.13: Multi-Gigabit/s Optical Wireless with ranges up to
200m
q IEEE 802.15 IG6T: Consolidate Link Layer Control interest group
q IEEE 802.15 IGdep: Enhanced Dependability interest group
q IEEE 802.15 IGvat: Vehicular Assistive Technology
 IEEE 802.15 Projects (Cont)
q IEEE 802.15 IGguide: Guide for 15.4 use interest group
q IEEE 802.15 IGhrrc: High-Rate Rail Communications interest group
q IEEE 802.15 IGTHz: Terahertz interest group
q IEEE 802.15 SCwng: Wireless Next-Generation standing committee
q IEEE 802.15 SCmaint: Maintenance standing committee
q IEEE 802.15 SCietf: IETF Liaison
 IEEE 802.15.4
q Used by several “Internet of Things” protocols:
ZigBee, 6LowPAN, Wireless HART, MiWi, and ISA 100.11a

Wireless HART
Application

ISA 100.11a
ZigBee

MiWi
802.15.4 6LoWPAN

Network

MAC
802.15.4

802.15.4

802.15.4

802.15.4
PHY
 IEEE 802.15.4 Overview
q Low Rate Wireless Personal Area Network (LR-WPAN)
q Does the Extended Unique ID function as
q 2.4 GHz (most common). 16 5-MHz channels the MAC address for 802.15.4 devices?
Yes. They do not use the 48-bit IEEE address.
q 250 kbps PHY Þ 50 kbps application data rate
q If the first bit is one and the second is one
q Peak current depends upon symbol rate Þ multilevel does it mean U G?
4b/symbol) No.
0/1 0/1
q Similar to 802.11: Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum, U/M G/L
0 0 Unicast, globally unique
CSMA/CA, Backoff, Beacon, Coordinator (similar to Access 0
1
1 Unicast, Local
0 Multicast, Globally unique
point) 1 1 Multicast, Local

q Lower rate, short distance Þ Lower power Þ Low energy

q Each node has a 64-bit Extended Unique ID (EUI-64):
U/M G/L OUI 40 bits assigned by the manufacturer
1b 1b 22b 40b
q No segmentation/reassembly. The Max MAC frame size is 127
bytes with a payload of 77+ bytes.
 IEEE 802.15.4 Topologies
q Star and peer-to-peer q If a coordinator is taken offline, does the
coordinator duty fall to another FFD or is the
q Two types of devices: Full Function device (FFD), piconet disbanded?
If there is another FFD, it will notice that the root has

Reduced Function device (RFD) gone away, it will start another network.

PAN coordinator
Full Function Device
Reduced Function Device

Star Mesh

Ref: IEEE 802.15.4-2011

 Coordinator
q FFDs can become the coordinator and can also route messages q Why would devices use the EUI address if the 16-

to other nodes bit address is available?

EUI Address is global. 16-bit address is local. Global
address can be used everywhere at all times. They are

q RFDs cannot become the coordinator and can only be a leaf too long to use and so short addresses are used after
registration.
q Are the coordinators set up statically when the
q FFD that starts a PAN becomes the coordinator network is set up initially, or can the nodes
dynamically decide who is going to be the
coordinator per each transmission?
q In star topology, all communication is to/from the coordinator The human owner associates the list of device members
in the network and who can become the root.
q If nodes used short addresses only, we have 216
q In P2P topology, FFDs can communicate directly also. nodes in each cluster.
Yes. 216-2. All 1’s is broadcast. All 0’s is not used.
q Do Star and Mesh both belong to some kind of
q Each piconet has a PAN ID and is called a cluster. cluster?
A cluster can have a star or a mesh topology. A star is a
particular case (subset) of mesh.
q Nodes join a cluster by sending association requests to the
coordinator. The coordinator assigns a 16-bit short address to
the device. Devices can use either the short address or the EUI-
64 address.
 Cluster Tree Network
q A coordinator can ask another FFD to become a q What exactly is a loop? Is it a cycle?
Yes, when packets start from 1 to go somewhere but come
coordinator for a subset of nodes. Tree Þ No loops back to 1 on their way. That will never end. This is why
IP has hop count limit.
q PAN chooses new PAN coordinators based on
what? And does the new coordinator polls
addresses within their network?
RPL protocol is used to elect the coordinator. The
protocol results in a tree topology.
PAN ID 2 PAN ID 3

PAN ID 1 First PAN Coordinator

Pan Coordinators
Full Function Device
Reduced Function Device
Ref: IEEE802.15.4-2011
IEEE 802.15.4 MAC
Beacon-Enabled CSMA/CA q How many GTS can CFP have? Min, max
The inactive portion can be zero.
q Coordinator sends out beacons periodically The contention access period can also be zero.
There is no limit to the beacon interval. So the
q Part of the beacon interval is inactive Þ Everyone sleeps range is infinite.

q Active interval consists of 16 slots

q Guaranteed Timed Slots (GTS): For real-time services.
Periodic reserved slots.
q Contention Access Period (CAP). Slotted CSMA.
Active Portion Inactive Portion
Beacon CAP CFP
GTS GTS
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415
Superframe Duration
Ref: IEEE 802.15.4-2011
Beacon Interval
Scenario
• A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is deployed for temperature
monitoring in a smart farm. The network consists of:

• A PAN Coordinator (acts as the central hub).

• Three sensor nodes (S1, S2, and S3) that periodically transmit
temperature data.
• The superframe is structured with a beacon period, a Contention
Access Period (CAP), and a Contention-Free Period (CFP).
Step 1: PAN Coordinator Sends a Beacon
The PAN Coordinator periodically broadcasts a beacon
frame to synchronize all devices.
The beacon carries:
Network ID
Superframe structure
Slot timing
Channel status

PAN Coordinator: [BEACON] "Time Sync - Network ID: 001, Channel: 15"
Step 2: Sensor Nodes Listen to the Beacon
S1, S2, S3: "Beacon received, ready to send data!"

Step 3: Nodes Attempt to Send Data Using Slotted CSMA/CA

All nodes wait for their assigned slots before attempting transmission.
Since it’s the Contention Access Period (CAP), they must compete using CSMA/CA.
S1: "Random backoff = 2 slots"
S1: "CCAClear Channel Assessment (CCA): Channel is idle!"
S1: [DATA] "Temperature = 30°C"
PAN Coordinator: [ACK] "Data received!"

Step 4: Node S2 Collides and Retries

Backoff Selection: S2 selects a backoff period.
CCA Check: The channel is busy (S1 is already transmitting).
Backoff Increase: S2 waits for next available slot and retries.
S2: "Random backoff = 3 slots"
S2: "CCA: Channel is busy! (S1 transmitting)"
S2: "Increasing backoff, retrying..."
Step 5: Node S3 Successfully Transmits After S2
S3 follows the same process and successfully transmits after S2 retries.

S3: "Random backoff = 4 slots"

S3: "CCA: Channel is idle!"
S3: [DATA] "Temperature = 32°C"
PAN Coordinator: [ACK] "Data received!"

Step 6: End of Superframe - Devices Sleep

Once transmission is complete, all nodes enter sleep mode to save power.
They will wake up at the next beacon.
PAN Coordinator: "End of Superframe - Entering Sleep Mode!"
S1, S2, S3: "Sleeping... until next beacon."
Simulation or Code Implementation?
Would you like a MATLAB/Python simulation/Cooja of slotted CSMA/CA for better understanding?
IEEE 802.15.4 MAC (Cont)
q Beaconless Operation: Unslotted CSMA q In beaconless transmissions, how do we make sure
the transmission is sent to the intended receiver?
Ø If the coordinator does not send beacons, there are no slots Wouldn't every device on the network receive the
message and potentially send wrong acks?
Every packet has a destination address. Only the
q Acknowledgements if requested by the sender. destination acks.
q What makes a frame Long or Short?
Acknowledgment, beacon and MAC command frames are
q Short inter-frame spacing (SIFS) if the previous transmission is short. Data frames are long.
q Which mode is the first option to use? Slotted or
shorter than a specified duration. Otherwise, Long inter-frame unslotted?
The network starts unslotted. The coordinator makes it

spacing (LIFS) slotted.

q Compared with Beacon-Enabled CSMA, unslotted
CSMA does not have an Inactive Portion. Does that
mean it uses more energy?
Acknowledged Transmissions Unslotted CSMA can have an inactive period during
which no one is transmitting.

Long Frame ACK Short Frame ACK

tack LIFS tack SIFS
Unacknowledged Transmissions
Long Frame Short Frame
LIFS SIFS
 802.15.4 CSMA/CA
q Wait until the channel is free.
q Wait for a random back-off period
If the channel is still free, transmit.
q If the channel is busy, back off again.
Backoff exponent limited to 0-2 in battery life-
extension mode.
q Acknowledgement and Beacons are sent without
CSMA-CA.
 UWB
q Very low energy consumption: Good Watts/Mbps
q Line of sight not required. Passes through walls.
q Sub-centimeter resolution allows precise motion detection
q Pulse width much smaller than path delay
Þ Easy to resolve multipath
Þ Can use multipath to advantage
q Difficult to intercept (interfere)
q All digital logic Þ Low-cost chips
q Small size: 4.5 mm2 in 90 nm process for high data rate designs
q UWB is used in iPhone-11, 12, 13, and 14 for ranging, path
navigation, and tracking.
Ref: Fine Ranging (FiRA) consortium, https://www.firaconsortium.org/resource-hub/technical-faq
IEEE 802.15.4e Enhancements
q Low latency deterministic operation: pre-assigned slots
q Channel adaptation: Different channels used by
different nodes for a contention-free period
q Time-slotted channel hopping: Higher layers
coordinate the slot allocation along with its frequency.
Suitable for harsh industrial environments.
q Each device can select its listening channel
q Transmitter and receiver coordinate their cycles (very
low duty cycle)
q Transmit only when requested by the receiver
 Summary

1. IoT fueled initially by the smart grid is resulting in several

competing protocols: Bluetooth Smart, ZigBee Smart, ...
2. IEEE 802.15.4 is a low-data rate wireless personal area
network and is the PHY and MAC layer used by many IoT
protocols, such as ZigBee and WirelessHART.
3. 802.15.4 uses full-function and reduced-function devices.
FFDs can act as coordinators. Allows a star, mesh, or cluster
tree topology.
4. Uses Slotted/Unslotted CSMA/CA. Supports Guaranteed
timed slots for low-latency applications.
5. UWB allows transmission with very low average power
spread over a large band.
 Reading List
q A. Elahi and A. Gschwender, “ZigBee Wireless Sensor and Control
Network,” Prentice Hall, 2009, 288 pp., ISBN:0137134851, (Chapters 3 and
4) Safari Book.
q O. Hersent, et al., “The Internet of Things: Key Applications and Protocols,”
Wiley, 2012, 344 pp., ISBN:9781119994350, Safari book.
 Homework 1

1. routing is one in which end-nodes help route the

messages for others.
2. topology is one in which loops are possible.
3. A FFP -function IEEE 802.15.4 device can be coordinator or
a router.
4. A RFP
-function IEEE 802.15.4 device can only be a leaf.
5. Broadcast within a specific group, e.g., police is called
6. Each IEEE 802.15.4 node has a 64 -bit unique ID. But
when it joins a network, it is assigned a 16 -bit short ID.
7. IEEE 802.15.4 nodes have a -bit universal address.
8. IEEE 802.15.4 nodes use a -bit local address during
communication.
9. IEEE 802.15.4 uses -MHz
channels in 2.4 GHz band.
10. In Beacon enabled mode, IEEE 802.15.4 coordinator sends beacons
periodically and active interval consists of 16 slots.
 Wikipedia Pages
q http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_to_machine
q http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Things
q http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.15.4
q http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.15.4a
q http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.15
q http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chirp_spread_spectrum
q http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_sense_multiple_access_with_collision_a
voidance
q http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-shift_keying
q http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chirp_spread_spectrum
q http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-wideband
q http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_area_network
q http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piconet
q http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scatternet
 Acronyms
q 6LowPAN IPv6 over Low Power Personal Area Network
q ACK Acknowledgement
q AES Advanced Encryption Standard
q AMCA Asynchronous Multi-Channel Adaptation
q ANSI American National Standards Institute
q ANT Name of a company
q BPM Burst Position Modulation
q CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
q CFP Contention Free Period
q COSEM Company Specification for Energy Metering
q CPS Cyber-Physical Systems
q CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check
q CSMA Carrier Sense Multiple Access
q CSMA/CA Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance
q CSS Chirp Spread Spectrum
q dBm deci-Bell milli-Watt
 Acronyms (Cont)
q DLMS Device Language Message Specification
q DQPSK Differential Quadrature Phase-shift keying
q ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
q EUI-64 Extended Unique Identifier
q FCC Federal Communications Commission
q FFD Full Function device
q GFSK Gaussian Frequency-Shift Keying
q GHz Giga Hertz
q GTS Guaranteed Timed Slots
q HART Highway Addressable Remote Transducer Protocol
q ID Identifier
q IEEE Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineer
q IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
q IoT Internet of Things
q ISA International Society of Automation
q IGTHz Interest Group for TeraHertz
 Acronyms (Cont)
q LAN Local Area Network
q LECIM Low energy critical infrastructure monitoring
q LIFS Long Inter-frame Spacing
q LPWAN Low-Power Wide Area Network
q LR-WPAN Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks
q LTE Long-Term Evolution
q MAC Media Access Control
q MAN Metropolitan Area Network
q MHz Mega Hertz
q MiWi Microchip Wireless
q OUI Organizationally Unique Identifier
q PAN Personal Area Network
q PCA Priority Channel Access
q PHY Physical Layer
q PLC Powerline Communications
q PPDU Physical Layer Protocol Data Unit
 Acronyms (Cont)
q PSSS Parallel Sequence Spread Spectrum
q QPSK Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
q RFD Reduced Function device
q RFID Radio Frequency Identifier
q SCADA Supervisory control and data acquisition
q SCietf Standing Committee for IETF Liaison
q SCwng Wireless Next Generation Standing Committee
q SIFS Short inter-frame spacing
q ULI Upper Layer Interface
q UWB Ultra Wide Band
q WirelessHART Wireless Highway Addressable Remote Transducer Protocol
q WPAN Wireless Personal Area Network
q WRAN Wireless Regional Area Network
 IEEE 802.15.4 Activities 2020
q TG4Cor: Revision to IEEE Standard 802.15.4-2020 (Task Group)
q TG4y: Security Next Generation
q TG4aa JRE: Japanese Rate Extension
q TG7a: Higher Rate, Longer Range Optical Camera Communications
(OCC)
q TG13: Multi-Gigabit/s Optical Wireless Communications
q TG16t: Licensed Narrowband
q TG9ma: 15.9 REV1
q SG7a: High Data Rate (Study Group)
q IGdep: Enhanced Dependability
q SCmaintenance: Maintenance of Standards (Standing Committee)
q SCTHz: Terahertz
q SCwng: Wireless Next Generation
Ref: http://ieee802.org/15/index.html
 MAC Frame Format
Frame Seq. Dest. Dest. Src Src Aux. Security Payload FCS
Control # PAN Id Addr. PAN Id Addr. Header
16b 8b 0/16b 0/16/64b 0/16b 0/16/64b 0/40/48/80/70b 16b

Frame Security Frame Ack PAN Id Rsvd Dest. Addr. Frame Src. Addr.
Type enabled Pending Reqd Compression Mode version mode
3b 1b 1b 1b 1b 3b 2b 2b 2b

000 Beacon
00 PAN Id and Addr not present
001 Data
01 Reserved
010 Ack
10 16-bit short address
011 MAC Command
11 64-bit extended address
Other Reserved