IMPLEMENTATION OF IEEE 802.15.
4 MODIFIED CSMA/CA
PROTOCOL ON NS3
N’Guessan Jean-Francois DEKI1, Dr Suchithra. R2
djfngs@aol.com1, suchithra.suriya@gmail.com2
JAIN
Deemed To be university
Department of Master Science (Information Technology)
Abstract--The 802.15.4 IEEE standard is one
among the Low Rate Wireless Personal Area
Network (LR-WPAN) standard designed by
IEEE. the Carrier Sensing Multiple Access-
Collision Avoidance (CSMA-CA) protocol
manage the medium access controller (MAC)
process for this standard. CSMA/CA is an
algorithm that handle all packets with equal
probability to access the data transmission
channel. A compliant implementation of
CSMA-CA protocol which follows the IEEE
802.15.4 specifications is important in order to
obtain the best quality of service (QoS). Some
of the well-known Wireless Sensor Networks
(WSNs) on NS3 simulation tool do not provide
a compliant. This work proposed an
implementation of the IEEE 802.15.4 modified
CSMA-CA protocol.
Keywords: IEEE 802.15.4 MAC, CSMA,
BackOff, hidden nodes.
I- INTRODUCTION
The 802.15.4 IEEE standard has two ways of
access mechanisms channel: The unslotted
carrier sense multiple access with collision
avoidance (CSMA-CA) and the slotted
CSMA algorithm with a super frame
structure. The CSMA-CA is a contention-
based multiple access technology that
requires each station to sense the medium to
be idle for a period of time before sending
each frame. The period of time is called inter-
frame space (IFS) whose length is related to
the frame priority. The level of frame
priorities is classified as Short IFS (SIFS),
PCF IFS (PIPS), DCF IPS (DIPS) and
Extended IPS (EIFS), which correspond to,
for example, ACK frames, PCF control
frames, data frames, and retransmission
frames, respectively. In 802.15.4, to avoid the
collision of data the backoff procedure is
used, where each station gets a random time
interval before its frame transmission
CSMA-CA makes each node use a
randomized waiting time before trying to
access the communication medium. To
reduce the interferences and collision in the
network the random mechanism is used. The
CSMA-CA of IEEE 802.15.4 is very widely
used in MAC protocols that are based on
carrier sensing. In this algorithm, the node
waits for a random time called backoff
period. The backoff period is in a range [0,
2BE -1], where BE (backoff exponent) that
determine the number of backoff period the
device shall wait before trying to access the
medium [16]. The CSMA-CA algorithm
mainly use a very small range of BE
(macMinBE – macMaxBE), where the
minimum BE (macMinBE = 3) and the
maximum (macMaxBE = 5). This random
time variation is producing a loss of data in
transmission which will be retransmitted and
create a waste of bandwidth in the network.
The proposed algorithm is implemented and
simulated in ns3 to compare its performance
with the original 802.15.4 standard. The rest
of the paper is organized as follow. In section
II, the review of the recent literature for
research contributions that targeted on
modifying the 802.15.4 standard. Section III
provides an overview of the modified
CSMA-CA (RTS/CTS as well as proposed
CSMA-CA). In Section IV, the simulations
conducted to analyze the performance of our
proposed algorithm. Finally, the conclusion
and future work is provided in Section V.
II- RELATED WORK
In [1], The authors propose an extension to
802.15.4. Their enhancements target on how
to achieve efficient power saving as well as
reliability and channel utilization in WSNs.
Basically, during channel access procedure,
the nodes try to access the wireless medium
to initialize transmitting its packets. Once a
node captures the medium and completes
sending the packets, the node should enter
standby state for some duration of time
denoted as LSB. The details of calculating
LSB can be found in [1]. This behavior can
achieve power saving and effectively reduce
the number of contending nodes in the
network and thus reduce the level of
collisions. On the other hand, the simulation
results show the performance of Standby
state only without comparing its results with
802.15.4 standard or any other algorithm.
In [2], The knowledge-based Exponential
Backoff (KEB) scheme is proposed. The
authors proposed KEB algorithm to enhance
throughput and channel utilization based on
channel state information locally to each
available node. In addition, the Exponential
Weighted Moving Average (EWMA)
scheme is used to compute the collision rate
at any time. Backoff exponent decrease or
increase based on the level of collision low or
high compared with a predefined threshold.
Analytical model by using Markov Chain
model have been proposed to simulate KEB
and compare its performance with BEB. The
simulation and analytical results show the
improvement of KEB’s performance in terms
of saturation throughput.
In [3], The authors tackle the packet
collision’s problem during the slotted
CSMA-CA period and introduced two novel
mechanisms to enhance energy efficiency
and throughput of beacon-enabled mode
802.15.4. These mechanisms are enhanced
collision resolution and enhanced backoff.
The first mechanism focuses on adjusting the
range of backoff exponent (BE) based on
both clear channel assessment results and
packet transmission while the second
mechanism proposes enhancement to the
backoff period by shifting the range of
backoff counters to reduce unneeded backoff
durations. However, their details can be
found in [8]. Through this work, simulation
results shown that CSMA-CA was not
properly design for some characteristics and
can be improved by the above-mentioned
mechanisms.
In [4], A model of discrete Markov chain that
can dynamically represent different network
loads is proposed to evaluate the IEEE
802.15.4 slotted CSMA/CA algorithm. By
computing the steady-state distribution
probability of the Markov chain, authors
present an evaluation formula for throughput,
energy consumption, and access latency.
They further analyze the parameters that
influence performance like packet arrival
rate, initial backoff exponent and maximum
number of backoffs. To validate the proposed
model, NS2 simulator is used to evaluate the
performance of the 802.15.4 CSMA/CA
algorithm under different scenarios.
In [6], Using OMNeT++ simulator, authors
present the results of performance evaluation
of four scheduling algorithms: Random
Select (RS), Destination Priority Queueing
(DPQ), Longest Queue First (LQF), and
Shortest Packet First (SPF) designed for the
unslotted CSMA/CA algorithm to address the
issues of fairness and bandwidth efficiency.
From the simulation results, they showed that
under uniform traffic conditions, the LQF
with buffer size of 13 and 78 bytes has the
best performance in terms of fairness, while
for throughput and packet delay, the DPQ
with the maximum buffer size of 1538 bytes
gives the best result. Analytical studies and
evaluation by simulation often fail to take
into account the architecture of the operating
system and the stack overhead on the network
protocols. On the other hand, simulators such
as Cooja and TOSSIM emulate the operation
system constraint (Contiki and TinyOS,
respectively) during the execution of the
protocols.
III- IMPLEMENTING THE
MODIFIED CSMA-CA
• Overview RTS/CTS
When a node transmit data to another node,
an RTS 'Request to Send' packet is send out
first. The receiver node replies with a CTS
'Cleared to Send' packet. After the node
receive the CTS packet, it sends the data
packets. Encoded with the RTS/CTS packets
a field of duration. The duration field is that
the data transmission completed within the
specific time period. If sender node does not
receive a CTS packet then the exponential
back off mode is executed and retransmission
is retried.
Figure 1: Channel access using RTS/CTS
frames
In the figure 1 when the source station wants
to send data destination stations, an RTS
packet is sent to the destination station which
reply with a CTS packet if read to receive and
then the data are exchange in between the
stations. The NAV (Network Allocation
Vector) is the time of occupation of node
transmission. This mechanism helps to avoid
the collision of data between 3 nodes trying
to exchange data each other. If a CTS packets
is not sent, the backoff mechanism will start
and set a time for retransmission of data.
• Proposed CSMA-CA
In the proposed CSMA/CA, for channel
access control three factors are maintained.
The backoff stage for the transmission of a
frame (NB = number of backoff trials). To
generate a time which the devices have to
wait before attempting transmission (backoff
exponent = BE). The value of the slots for
clear channel assessment (CCA) after the
backoff time (contention window = CW). Let
n the backoff stage NB of a device, wn = 2 BEn
the backoff window at backoff stage k of a
device, where backoff exponent BEn =1,2,3...
and 6 for 0 ≤ k ≤m (m = 5). Given a uniform
distribution of backoff times, the expected
backoff time is the mean of the possibilities.
That is, after c collisions, the number of
backoff slots is in [0, 1, ..., N], where N = 2c
− 2 and the expected backoff time (in slots) is
2
At the begin k=0, a random backoff value
among [0, w0−2] slots and the counter value
decrements automatically for each slot until
it reaches zero regardless of channel status.
The power consumption of device can be
saved in this way for medium sensing. The
device performs carrier sensing (CCA)
before attempting to access the wireless
medium. The CW starts from 1 and decreases
to 0 on idle contention window slot. If the
contention window slot is busy, it
immediately increases backoff stage k and
resets CW to one.
Then, the count-down procedure with a new
random backoff value in between [0, wk−2],
and carrier sensing until the backoff stage
k=m. If the contention window slot for CCA
is busy at any backoff stage k, the device
cannot have a chance to transmit the frame.
Depending on the ACK frame is successfully
received or not the transmitted frame can be
either success or failure (collision). For six
consecutive carrier sensing, if the channel is
still sensed busy means the transmission also
fails. Either due to busy channel or a collision
When the device fails to transmission, the
device is allowed to retransmit the frame up
to three times. In that case, the retransmission
phase starts with a random backoff
countervalue among [0, wk−2] with backoff
stage k=0. After three retransmission failures,
the frame is dropped eventually.
Figure 2: Flowchart of the Proposed
CSMA-CA
The mechanism in the figure 1 adjusts the BE
based on not only CCA results but also a
packet transmission. First, the mechanism
increases the BE after a fixed number of
suites of CCA busy response, since a CCA
busy result is not what expected for the
channel contention. At the time the CCA
busy results reaches
macMaxCSMABackoffs, the BE is
increased. Second, the BE is adjusted
according to the result of the transmission,
and not resetting after a transmission. the BE
is decreases after a successful packet
transmission. The BE when a device fails to
receive an ACK packet.
IV- SIMULATION AND
DISCUSSION
The performance evaluation of our
CSMA/CA implementation by means of
simulation performed with the Network
simulator 3. Network Simulator 3 is a flexible
C++ based simulator designed for simulating
IOT device on the operating system. In the
scenario 10 node (device) are used to create
the wireless personal area network. The net
device configuration will be setup. The
proposed csma-ca will be configured after the
first test with the default csma-ca in the done.
A. Throughput Transmission
Figure 3: Throughput of the transmission
In the figure 2, the proposed CSMA-CA has
packet transmission that are better than the
default one. The algorithm helps to increase
the packet transmission in a better way. The
number of packets in the default CSMA-CA
is less compare to the proposed one. The data
transmission using the proposed CSMA-CA
give a better result than the default CSMA-
CA in network simulator 3.
 B. Delay Transmission
Figure 4: Delay of packet transmission
In the figure 3, after the proposed algorithm
execute, the time delay between the packet
transmission has reduce as expected. The
proposed backoff algorithm have success in
decreasing the time by few milliseconds
which increase the usage of the bandwidth.
the proposed system has help in reducing the
waiting time (backoff period) and increase
the throughput of the transmission between
the device.
V- CONCLUSION
CSMA/CA is a protocol that have been use
for the IEEE 802.11 and improve the
communication between the host but the
implementation of this protocol into the IEEE
802.15.4 need to be carefully done to respect
the 802.15.4 rule of transmission and the real
time device. Since a packet transmission in
wireless network is subject to many
collisions, the proposed method gives better
data exchange with a better time period to
avoid the collision, which ends up enhancing
the performance of the 802.15.4 device.
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