Improve IEEE 802.15.4 Network Reliability by Suspendable CSMA/CA

Sub-1 GHz Wireless Communications of LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) are attracting attention in IoT applications. In addition to battery-powered devices, the number of grid-powered and solar-powered sensor devices using LPWAN are also rapidly increasing for various IoT applications. We aim to improve reliability and efficiency of IEEE 802.15.4 CSMA/CA mechanism in the network consisting of devices without power constraint. We propose Suspendable Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) algorithms for IEEE 802.15.4 to mitigate packet loss by channel access failure while maintaining compatibility with conventional IEEE 802.15.4 CSMA/CA. We have performed extensive simulations to valid the Suspendable CSMA/CA mechanism. Simulation results show that the proposed Suspendable CSMA/CA improves Packet Delivery Rate (PDR) by 9.7 points (89.9 % to 99.6 %) compared to the conventional IEEE 802.15.4g CSMA/CA and therefore, can lead higher spectrum efficiency for IoT applications operate in the limited Sub-l G Hz wireless bandwidth. The proposed Suspendable CSMA/CA mechanism has been also approved and adopted for the next IEEE 802.15.4 amendment by IEEE 802.15 Working Group.