A survey and comparison of GTS allocation and scheduling algorithms in IEEE 802.15.4 wireless sensor networks

Multimedia applications in the wireless domain require not only contention-based communication, but also reservation based one. The IEEE 802.15.4 standard is widely used for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), and is a standard for low rate, low power and low cost WPANs (Wireless Personal Area Networks). Moreover, it supports the allocation of Guaranteed Time Slot (GTS) to the devices in Contention free period (CFP). With time, many GTS scheduling and allocation algorithms have been proposed with the aim to make maximum the use of GTS. This paper provides a survey and comparison on the current state-of-the-art researches in this important area. We have firstly summarized all the important algorithms proposed till now and then classified and compared them based on various parameters including type, delay, bandwidth, cost, topology, traffic and energy efficiency.