An Adaptive Superframe Duration Allocation Algorithm for Resource-Efficient Beacon Scheduling

Beacon scheduling is considered to be one of the most significant challenges for energy-efficient Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Network (LR-WPAN) multi-hop networks. The emerging new standard, IEEE802.15.4e, contains a distributed beacon scheduling functionality that utilizes a specific bitmap and multi-superframe structure. However, this new standard does not provide a critical recipe for superframe duration (SD) allocation in beacon scheduling. Therefore, in this paper, we first introduce three different SD allocation approaches, LSB first, MSB first, and random. Via experiments we show that IEEE802.15.4e DSME beacon scheduling performs differently for different SD allocation schemes. Based on our experimental results we propose an adaptive SD allocation (ASDA) algorithm. It utilizes a single indicator, a distributed neighboring slot incrementer (DNSI). The experimental results demonstrate that the ASDA has a superior performance over other methods from the viewpoint of resource efficiency.