Markov chain-based performance evaluation of IEEE 802.15.4 multihop wireless sensor networks

In this paper, we propose a Markov chain-based analytical framework for modeling the behavior of the medium access control (MAC) protocol in IEEE 802.15.4 multihop wireless sensor networks. First, we present an analytical framework for 1-hop networking scenarios, i.e., scenarios where all the sensor nodes communicate directly to the network coordinator. Then, we extend our framework to 2-hop networking scenarios, i.e., scenarios where sensor nodes communicate to the coordinator through an intermediate relay node which forwards the packets received from the sources (i.e., the sensors) toward the final destination (i.e., the coordinator). No acknowledgment messages are transmitted to confirm successful data packet deliveries, and communications are beaconed (i.e., they make use of synchronization packets denoted as "beacons"). The aggregate network throughput and the packet delivery delay are evaluated. Our results show a good agreement between the proposed analytical model and realistic ns-2 simulation results.