Video transmission in IEEE 802.15.4 wireless sensor network using asynchronous TDMA

Abstract

Nowadays, the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technology is extensively used in a large variety of applications. WSN has engaged humans and computers in many applications such as health monitoring and security. IEEE 802.15.4 wireless standard is the current demand on WSN which is used to transmit video or real-time data at low data rates. Reliable data transmission for video applications is a critical issue in low data rate transmissions due to the high collision from conventional protocol, which is Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA). Therefore, a MAC layer with token approach protocol called MAC-TA protocol is proposed to solve this issue. In this protocol, the only node that holds the token can transmit the data. If other nodes intent to do the transmission, they have to wait for the token before sending the data. Token Holding Time (THT) is a duration time set at the node that holds the token, and the token is pass to the next node when the THT is finished. This paper is focusing on the development of the MAC-TA protocol onto test-bed TelG motes. Three types of MPEG-4 video samples have been tested which are Akiyo, Foreman, and Mobile both in Quarter Common Intermediate Format (QCIF) and Common Intermediate Format (CIF) format. The proposed protocol is compared with the existing CSMA protocol in IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The experimental results present that the MAC-TA protocol has improved the packet delivery ratio by 70%. Moreover, the results prove that MAC-TA provides good reliability of multimedia data and makes it possible to send over IEEE 802.15.4 environment.