Neighbour Discovery for Transmit Power Adjustment in IEEE 802.15.4 Using RSSI

Neighbour discovery (ND) is an important process for self-configuration as it provides useful information, such as neighbour nodes with some power saving parameters, for other processes. In wireless sensor networks, transmission power adjustment is one of the possible ways to minimise energy consumption and prolong network lifetime. This paper proposes the ND technique which provides the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) value for dynamic transmit power adjustment in IEEE 802.15.4. This work focuses on a single-hop network of wireless devices with different maximum transmission powers, where an asymmetric wireless link is very common. The energy consumption and packet loss rate are investigated through testbed experimentation. The proposed algorithm shows transmission efficiency which does not affect the packet loss rate. Moreover, it supports both environment change and the change of distance between nodes.