Using time-triggered communications over IEEE 802.15.4

IEEE802.15.4 is used for low-data-rate connectivity among fixed or moving devices, with low-cost and low-power consumption, in applications in residential and industrial environment, e.g. home automation and automotive. The flexible time-triggered paradigm (FTT) allows different types of traffic (time and event-triggered, hard and soft real-time) with temporal isolation between each other and a flexible handling of time-triggered traffic with dynamic communication requirements. This paper proposes a preliminary solution for the transmission of real-time time-triggered traffic over the 802.15.4 standard, as a beginning to implement a full FTT protocol. The envisaged applications are in the field of home automation with real-time requirements to convey life support signals and in infrastructure or vehicle to vehicle communications (I2V and V2V).