A 6LoWPAN implementation for memory constrained and power efficient wireless sensor nodes

The availability of low-power wireless sensor nodes has brought forward the scenarios of the Internet of Things, in which ubiquitous things need to be aware of their context, and at the same time be power efficient and IP-addressable. 6LoWPAN is one of the first protocols to standardise Internet connectivity for wireless sensor networks. The various 6LoWPAN implementations that are currently available are either dependent on the operating systems used on the sensor nodes or only commercially available. The dependency on using operating systems is suitable for larger nodes with more processing power and memory capacity, but is not practical, if not impossible, for power efficient nodes with systems on chip (SoC) solutions such as TI CC430. In this work, a successful implementation of 6LoWPAN/CD (6LoWPAN protocol for constrained devices) on bare metal CC430-based sensor nodes has been designed and implemented. It is based on open source software including the Contiki operating system and TI SimpliciTI protocol stack. The IP connectivity is demonstrated on a CC430-based power efficient wireless sensor node, AWSAM.