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Modeling the Impact of Deferred Transmission in CSMA/CA Algorithm for IEEE 802.15.4 using Markov Chain Model
Saeed Ur Rehman* , Farrukh A. Bhatti* , Faiz Rasool , M. Yasir Iqbal , Zeeshan Sabir of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Auckland, New Zealand Department of Engineering Information, Politecnico d torino, Italy NWFP University of Engineering & Technology, Peshawar, Pakistan Email: {sreh008,fbha004,fras004}@aucklanduni.ac.nz, mianmohammadyasir.iqbal@studenti.polito.it, zeeshansabir@yahoo.com
Department

AbstractIEEE has introduced the 802.15.4 standard for a low rate, low power, low complexity and short range Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) in 2003. The basic access mechanism used by the standard is the Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA). It has been noted that there is a problem of low throughput for short superframe duration due to the collision of the packets at the start of the superframe. Hence in 2006, the standard was revised and the CSMA/CA algorithm was modied such that deferred transmission was assigned another delay of random backoff periods before accessing the medium. In this paper, the effects of deferments on the performance of CSMA/CA have been analyzed, which has not been investigated in the past. An accurate analytical model for the deferred transmission in the CSMA/CA algorithm of IEEE 802.15.4/ 2006 using Markov chain has been developed. It has been found that the deferment of packets to a new superframe signicantly affects the throughput for short frame duration. Index TermsCSMA/CA, IEEE 802.15.4, MAC, WSN

I. I NTRODUCTION IRELESS Sensor Network (WSN) is a promising technology which can be used for different applications ranging from industrial control and monitoring to home automation and consumer electronics, security and military sensing, asset tracking, supply chain management, health monitoring etc. A WSN essentially requires that a common communication link be established amongst sensor nodes, which is to be shared by all in an efcient and fair manner. The performance of WSN is therefore critically dependent on the performance of MAC layer protocol, which coordinates the sharing of common link amongst different nodes. IEEE has devised a standard IEEE 802.15.4 for the Physical (PHY) and MAC layer of low rate wireless sensor networks. The standard uses CSMA/CA as its access mechanism and was originally published in 2003 [1] and was revised in 2006 [2]. In the original CSMA/CA algorithm of IEEE 802.15.4/2003, a node starts transmitting packets only when it has enough time in the current superframe for a successful transmission; i.e. when the random backoff period ends, the MAC will perform two Clear Channel Assessments (CCA), transmit the packet, and wait for the (optional) acknowledgment packet. If the Contention Access Period (CAP) has enough backoff periods to accommodate all of these for a successful transmission then

the node will proceed and start evaluation of the medium. However, if the remaining time in the current superframe is not sufcient then the packet transmission is deferred to a new superframe .Then CCAs for the evaluation of the medium are performed on the rst and second backoff boundaries of the new superframe. If two or more nodes have deferred their transmission then there will always be a collision in the third backoff period. This problem was addressed in the revised version of the standard [2], where nodes with deferred transmission were assigned another delay of random backoff periods before assessing the medium. The same author has built an OPNET simulation model to investigate the effects of deferment in terms of throughput, success probability and average delay [3]. However, to best knowledge of the author, an analytical model for the performance evaluation of the revised IEEE 802.15.4/2006 standard has yet to be built and the effects of deferment have still to be investigated. Previous work was mainly based on the CSMA/CA algorithm of IEEE 802.15.4/2003. The work presented in this paper has threefold contribution. First, an analytical model using Markov chain has been developed for the performance analysis of CSMA/CA algorithm of IEEE 802.15.4/2006 and impact of deferments have been analyzed. Second, the proposed analytical model will provide an accurate presentation of CSMA/CA algorithm of IEEE 802.15.4 as previous model has not considered the effect of deferred transmission. Third, this analytical model will further validate the simulation results presented in [3]. The performance of IEEE 802.15.4/2003 MAC sublayer has mostly been evaluated analytically with Markov chain models. Analytical studies of the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC sublayer mainly follow the Bianchi model [4]. Bianchis work discusses the performance of IEEE 802.11 network and develops an analytical expression for saturation throughput in terms of the packet transmission probability [4]. Park et al. have proposed a Markov chain model of IEEE 802.15.4 similar to the Bianchi model and analyzed the throughput and energy consumption under saturation conditions [5]. Pollin et al. have also analyzed the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC on similar lines as Bianchi, by considering the carrier sensing probability rather than packet sending probability and assumed that carrier sensing probabil-

ity is independent for each node [6]. Patro et al. have extended Pollins work by considering acknowledgment packets in deriving the expression for carrier sensing probability, throughput and validated the results with ns-2 simulations [7]. A frame adapting strategy was also proposed in which it was shown that conducting one Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) was better than two. In all of the above mentioned research work, the effects of deferred transmission have not been considered. The rst paper that introduced the deferred transmission was published by Misic et al. [8]. A Markov chain model has been proposed to obtain the throughput both in saturated and unsaturated modes using the queuing theory. Different MAC parameters were investigated for the packet arrival rate, the number of nodes and the packet length. This model was improved by considering the deferred transmission in [9]. The analytical model produced for the deferred transmission in [8], [9], [10] was according to IEEE 2003 standard [1]. The difference in the deferred transmission for IEEE 2003 and IEEE 2006 is explained later in section II. Zheng and Lee have carried out a comprehensive study for both slotted and un-slotted CSMA/CA using the ns-2 simulator [11]. The simulation results have shown that rate of collision is high at the start of a short superframe. Lu et al. have discussed the trade-offs between throughput, energy consumption and delay using simulations [12]. It has been proven that a low duty cycle increases the lifetime of a WSN at the cost of degraded throughput and increased packet delay. Koubaa et al. have evaluated the performance of slotted CSMA/CA for MAC attributes (BO, SO and BE) in terms of throughput, average delay and success probability using the OPNET simulator [13]. The same author has evaluated the effect of packet deferment on throughput, success probability and average delay through simulation in OPNET modeler [3]. The analytical model presented in this paper will further validate our simulation results for the deferred transmission [3] and this work will provide a true analytical model of CSMA/CA algorithm of IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents a brief overview of CSMA/CA algorithm with the impact of deferred transmission. Section 3 presents the analytical model for CSMA/CA. Section 4 presents the performance evaluation with respect to Misic model with conclusions in section 5. II. CSMA/CA ALGORITHM OF IEEE 802.15.4/2006 IEEE has devised a standard IEEE 802.15.4 for the Physical (PHY) and MAC layer of low rate wireless sensor networks. The standard uses slotted CSMA/CA as its access mechanism. In the slotted CSMA-CA channel access mechanism, each time a node wishes to transmit a packet during the Contention Access Period (CAP); it will locate the boundary of the backoff period [2]. Each node maintains the value of 3 parameters: Number of Backoffs (NB), Contention Window (CW) and Backoff Exponent (BE). NB is always initialized to 0 for a new packet transmission and it denotes the maximum attempts the CSMA/CA algorithm can make, while attempting the current packet transmission. CW denes the length of the contention

window, which is the number of backoff periods for which the medium should be sensed idle before attempting the packet transmission. CW is initialized and reset to 2 each time the channel is found busy i.e., if some other device is transmitting. BE denes the random backoff period that a device should wait before attempting to assess the channel.

Figure 1.

CSMA/CA algorithm in IEEE 802.15.4

The CSMA/CA algorithm is divided into six steps as shown in Fig. 1. When a node has a packet to transmit, then in step 1, the values of three parameters (NB, CW, BE) are initialized as per the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. It should be noted that BE can be initialized with 2 or macMinBE depending on the value of BLE, where macMinBE=3 according to the standard [2]. The boundary of backoff slot is located after initialization of parameters in step 1. Then algorithm moves to step 2, where a delay of random backoff period is uniformly selected in the range from 0 to 2BE -1. The algorithm starts counting down the number of backoff periods, when random delay ends then algorithm moves to step 3. A node starts transmission of packets only when it has enough backoff periods available in the current superframe for a successful transmission, i.e. when the delay of random backoff periods ends. Then the algorithm will perform two Clear Channel Assessment (CCA), transmit the packet, and wait for the (optional) acknowledgment packet. This decision is made in step 3. If the CAP has enough backoff periods to accommodate all of these for a successful transmission then algorithm will proceed to step 4 and perform rst CCA. If the remaining time is not sufcient then the algorithm should wait for the next superframe and then move to step 4. In Step 4, algorithm requests PHY layer to perform rst CCA. If the channel is assessed to be busy then it proceeds to step 5, where

it will increment both NB and BE by one and also ensure that BE shall be less than or equal to aMaxBE. In addition, CW will be reset to 2. If the value of NB is less than or equal to macMaxCSMABackoffs, the CSMA-CA will go back to step 2 to wait for another delay of random backoff period, otherwise the CSMA/CA will terminate and a failure status will be declared. Once the CSMA/CA algorithm moves to step 4 then it will evaluate the channel and upon nding it idle, it moves to step 6. In Step 6, it will decrement the CW by 1 and will check if two CCAs are performed, if not then it moves to step 4 and on next backoff boundary channel is assessed again. Upon two successful assessments, it will transmit the packet. In the CSMA/CA algorithm in step 3, if the CAP has enough backoff periods to accommodate all of the steps for a successful transmission then the rst CCA will be performed. If the remaining time is not sufcient then the standard (802.15.4/2003) denes that the MAC should wait for the next superframe. Upon commencement of the new superframe, the rst CCA will be performed in the rst backoff period of the superframe. If the channel is found idle in the rst CCA, then the second CCA will be performed on the next backoff boundary. Hence, a packet will always be transmitted after successful evaluation of CCA, as the channel will always remain idle during the rst two backoff periods [1]. Now, if there are two or more nodes that have deferred their transmission in the last superframe to next superframe then collision is inevitable, as the nodes will sense the channel being idle and will start transmission on the boundary of the third backoff period as can be seen in Fig. 2.

the IEEE 802.15.4 standard in 2006 [2]. In this revision, a slight modication to the CSMA/CA algorithm has been proposed where, instead of evaluating the channel at the start of superframe, the deferred transmission is assigned with another random delay before assessing the medium. This feature increases the throughput by decreasing the rate of collisions, which in turn increases the lifetime of a node by consuming less power in retransmission. The IEEE 802.15.4/2006 deferred transmission solution is illustrated in Fig. 3. Three nodes, each of which has deferred their transmission from last superframe, start waiting for another random backoff period and then after the end of the delay period, begin to evaluate the channel.This solution increases the average delay but can be tolerated for low data rate transmission [3] as power saving is the main feature of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard.

Figure 3.

CCA deference in IEEE 802.15.4/2006

The objective of the present study is to develop an accurate analytical model to represent the actual CSMA/CA algorithm as reported in IEEE 802.15.4/2006. Additionally performance of the CSMA/CA algorithm for the deferred transmission has been analyzed and results are compared with those of the CSMA/CA algorithm for IEEE 802.15.4/2003 [9]. The results reported in this paper have further validated our simulation results [3]. III. MARKOV CHAIN MODEL FOR CSMA/CA
Figure 2. CCA deference in IEEE 802.15.4/2003

This problem is more pronounced in superframes with short active superframe duration, as deferments will occur frequently and therefore collision rate will be high. In the long superframe the collision will occurs precisely in the same way but with less frequency as nodes will not deferred the transmission to new superframe. Therefore, the percentage of packet loss as compared to the percentage of packet transferred will be less in the long superframe. Therefore, this work will analyze the impact of deferment for short superframe only. In order to improve the channel access and throughput, this collision can be avoided by employing a mechanism to stop the assessment of the channel in the rst two backoff periods of the superframe. IEEE has published revision of

The Markov chain model of the CSMA/CA algorithm has been developed to determine the probability of accessing the channel ( ). It has been shown that assigning another delay of random backoff period for the deferred transmission improves the performance of the CSMA/CA algorithm. Fig. 4 shows the Markov chain model for the saturation mode of operation, which shows different states of the CSMA/CA algorithm. A node will go through different states in order to access the medium. Since, the saturation mode is being considered i.e., a node always has a packet to transmit; therefore the node will always be in a state of Markov chain. B(t) , N(t) , C(t) and D(t) are random variables, which show the status of the node in different states. The values of these random variables are dened according to the standard, i.e. B(t) =0- - - -2BE -1, N(t) =(0- - -macMaxCSMABackoffs) and C(t) = 0, 1, 2. If transmission is deferred to next superframe

then D(t) starts and it shows the value of the delay line counter. Dd is the number of backoff periods required for the transmission of a packet within the current superframe. The status of a node is dened by the process {N(t), C(t), B(t), D(t)}. This process shows the exact state of a node in CSMA/CA algorithm at a backoff boundary. For simplicity, the random variables N(t), C(t), B(t), D(t) are represented by i, j, k and l, respectively. D(t) will be shown only when the system is in the delay line in order to reduce notational complexity. NB is denoted by m. W0 is 2macM inBE and Wi = W0 2min(i,5macM inBE ) , where i represents the current value of NB (i=0. . . m), whereas, macMaxBE =5 according to the standard [2]. A. Transition Probabilities Transition probability does not depend on the stage and remains the same for all the stages. Transition probabilities for Markov chain can be assigned as: p(i, 2, k 1/i, 2, k ) = 1; p(i, 1, 0/i, 2, 0) = 1; p(i, 0, 0/i, 1, 0) = 1 ; p(i + 1, 2, k/i, 2, 0) =
(1pd ) Wi+1 ; Wi+1 ;

for i = 0...m; k = 0...2BE 1; for i = 0...m; k = 0...2BE 1; for i = 0...m; for i = 0...m; k = 0...2BE 1; for for i = 0...m; l = 0..Dd 1; for i = 0...m; for i = 0...m; for k = 0...2BE 1;
1 Wi+1 ;

Figure 4.

Markov chain model for CSMA/CA algorithm [2]

p(i + 1, 2, k/i, 1, 0) = i = 0...m; k = 0...2BE 1; p(i, 2, 0, l/i, 2, 0) =

pd Dd ;

p(i, 2, 0, l 1/i, 2, 0, l) = 1; p(i + 1, 2, k/i, 2, 0, 0) = p(0, 2, k/m + 1, 0, 0) =

1 Wi+1 ;

The transition probability in the backoff period for moving from one state to other is 1 and is shown by the 1st equation. Transition probability between states when backoff counter is zero and CCA1 is successfully assessed is given by 2nd equation. 3rd equation shows the transition probability for the successful evaluation of CCA2 upon nding the medium idle. Transition probability that medium is busy in the CCA1 and CCA2 is shown by 4th and 5th equation. If a packet cannot be transmitted in the current superframe, then it will go to a delay line, and occupy one of the states in the range from 0. . . . Dd - 1. This is illustrated in Fig. 5 and transition probability is dened by 6th equation. Equations 7th and 8th show the transition probability for the delay line decrement and when delay line ends then it goes into another stage of Markov chain, respectively. After a maximum number of backoff stages (i.e. when NB= m) it goes again into 1st stage and occupies a state in the range from 0. . . W0 . It is shown by last equation. B. Stationary Probabilities Stationary distribution of the Markov chain would be xi,j,k,l = limt p{N (t) = i, c(t) = j, B (t) = k, D(t) = 1};fori = 0...m; j = 0, 1, 2; k = 0...2BE 1; l = 0...Dd 1.

Figure 5.

Delay line for deferred packet transmission

Stationary probabilities for stage 0 in Fig. 4 are derived as follows. X0,1,0 = X0,2,0 (1 Pd )(1 ) = X0,2,0 C1 X1,2,0 = X0,2,0 (Pd + ( (1 ) + (1 Pd ) X 1 , 2 ,0 = X 0 , 2 , 0 C 2 X0,0,0 = X0,2,0 (1 Pd )(1 )(1 ) = X0,2,0 C3 (1) (2) (3)

where C1 ,C2 and C3 are the transition probabilities for the CCA1 , the Backoff Stage and the CCA2 , respectively. These transition probabilities will be same for all the backoff stages. The stationary distributions for the whole chain will be calculated in term of these auxiliary variables C1 ,C2 and C3 . The stationary probabilities obtained in (1), (2) and (3) are

different than for those obtained for IEEE 802.15.4/2003 [9]. This makes an impact on rest of the stationary probabilities for other stages, which in turn improves the system performance. Stationary distribution for the ith stages are
i Xi,0,0 = X0,0,0 C2 ; for i = 1...m; C i Wi k X 1 ,0 ,0 = X 0 , 0 ,0 C2 Wi ; for i = 0...m; k 3 C1 i Xi,1,0 = X0,0,0 C3 C2 ; for i = 0...m;

(4) = 0...Wi 1 (5) (6)

3) Saturation Throughput : Saturation throughput is the number of slots occupied by a node for a successful packet transmission [5], [7]. It is characterize by the probability that the node has successfully assessed the channel among the (n1) nodes i.e., S = Ln (1 )n1 )(1 )(1 ) (12)

For last backoff stage Xm+1,0,0 =

Dd 1 l=0 X0,0,0 C m+1 C3
i X 0, 0,0 C2 pd (Dd 1) C3

The next section shows the results obtained from proposed analytical model and compares these with the results of Misic et al. of IEEE 802.15.4/2003 [9]. IV. ANALYTICAL RESULTS The systems of non-linear equation obtained in previous section have been solved numerically using MATLAB symbolic math toolbox. An active period with Contention Access Period (CAP) is only considered within the superframe structure; however, analysis is equally valid for a superframe structure having Contention Free Period (CFP) and CAP. The short superframe is evaluated as deferments of packet are more pronounced as compared to long superframe. Short superframe is selected by setting BO and SO to 0 [2]. Values of parameters dened by the standard are used for CSMA/CA [2]. i.e. macMaxCSMABackoffs = 5, aMaxBE= 5 and macMinBE =3.
0.9

(7)

For the delay line Xi,2,0,l = (8)

because sum of all the probabilities in the Markov chain must be equal to 1. Therefore, X0,0,0 can be obtain as X 0 ,0 ,0 =
m+1 i (W i +1) ( C2 1 C m )+ 12 i=0 ( 2C3 C2

( C1 +
3

m+1 C pd (Dd 1) )+ 2 C3 C3

When backoff counter is decreased to zero and node has successfully performed two CCAs then it can access the medium and transmit the packet. The total probability to access the medium can therefore be dened as =
m i=0

= X 0 ,0 , 0 (

m+1 1 C2 1 C2 )

C. Calculation of Transition Probabilities To nd the probability to access the medium , we need to calculate the unknown transition probabilities Pd , and in the Markov chain in Fig. 4. 1) Probability of deferment (Pd ): Pd is the probability of deferment and it is calculated only when packets are deferred to new superframe due to unavailability of slots in the current superframe. This can be calculated by counting the number of slots required for the successful transmission divided by the total number of slots in the superframe. Thus Pd = Pd = Therefore, for unacknowledge packet transmission
CCAs+l SD

0.85

Probability of CCA1 being busy

0.8

0.75 CSMA03 L=3 CSMA06 L=3 CSMA03 L=7 CSMA06 L=7 CSMA03 L=10 CSMA06 L=10

0.7

0.65

0.6

0.55

0.5 10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Number of nodes (n)

number of backof f period required f or successf ul transmission T otal backof f periods in CAP Figure 6.

Probability of CCA1 being busy () for different number of nodes n and packet size L

(9)

where l is the packet size and CCAs are the number of backoff period required for a successful unacknowledged data transmission. Two backoff periods are required for CCAs as per standard [2]. Superframe Duration (SD) denotes only the active portion in the superframe duration. 2) Probability of CCA1 and CCA2 being busy: The probability of CCA1 and CCA2 being busy is dened by and , respectively [7]. Medium will be busy due to the data transmission by nodes. So the probability of CCA1 being busy due to the data and CCAs for the unacknowledged transmission will be = L(1 (1 )n1 )(1 )(1 )
2

(10)

The probability that CCA being busy is dened by . It is calculated only when CCA1 is successfully assessed idle. CCA2 for an unacknowledged transmission is given as =
1(1 )n1 2(1 )n

(11)

The probabilities , and S are plotted for different number of nodes n and packet size L. Misic et al. have developed the Markov chain model for CSMA/CA of IEEE 802.15.4/2003 for obtaining the probability to access the medium [9]. The proposed Markov chain model in this paper is based on IEEE 802.15.4/2006, which considers the assignment of a random backoff period for the deferred packet transmission. In gures, the legends CSMA_06 and CSMA_03 represent the proposed model in this paper and Misic et al. work, respectively. Figure 6 shows the probability of CCA1 being busy () for different number of nodes n and packet size L. As can be seen when number of nodes are less and packet size is small then is less busy because packets are transmitted within the same superframe and less deferments of packets occur for a small number of nodes. However, when number of nodes and packet size increases, so does the probability of CCA1 being busy () increases. The probability of CCA1 being busy is more for CSMA_03 while for CSMA_06, it is less busy by avoiding the collision at the start of the superframe. The situation gets

worse as the number of nodes increases because more nodes defer transmission and as a result more, collision occurs. This argument is equally valid for the probability of CCA2 being busy ( ). This is shown in gure 7, where probability of CCA2 being busy ( ) is plotted for different number of nodes n and packet length L. The CCA2 is evaluated only after CCA1 is found idle during medium sensing. This is the reason that the probability of CCA2 being busy ( ) is less for both CSMA_03 and CSMA_06 although CSMA_06 shows some improvement.

0.7 0.6 0.5

Throughput (S)

CSMA03 L=7 CSMA06 L=7 CSMA03 L=10 CSMA06 L=10

0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 10

15

20

25

30 35 Number of nodes (n)

40

45

50

0.5

Figure 8.

Throughput S for unacknowledge data transmission

Probability of CCA2 being busy

0.4

0.3

0.2 CSMA03 L=3 CSMA06 L=3 CSMA03 L=7 CSMA06 L=7 CSMA03 L=10 CSMA06 L=10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

0.1

0 10

Number of nodes (n)

and CSMA_06. It has been found that CSMA_06 performs well for the deferred transmission by avoiding collision at the start of a superframe. It has been shown that as the size of the packets as well as the number of nodes become large, the deferment strategy introduced in IEEE 802.15.4/2006 can have more pronounced effect on the throughput. Note that the modied standard essentially assigns another random delay for the deferred transmission at the beginning of the superframe. R EFERENCES
[1] IEEE, Ieee std 802.15.4, part 15.4: Wireless medium access control (mac) and physical layer (phy) specication for low rate wireless personal area networks (lr-wpans), Dec. 2003. [2] , Ieee std 802.15.4, part 15.4: Wireless medium access control (mac) and physical layer (phy) specication for low rate wireless personal area networks (lr-wpans), 2006. [3] S. Rehman, S. Berber, and A. Swain, Performance analysis of csma/ca algorithm for wireless sensor network, in TENCON 2010 - 2010 IEEE Region 10 Conference, nov. 2010, pp. 2012 2017. [4] G. Bianchi et al., Performance analysis of the IEEE 802. 11 distributed coordination function, IEEE Journal on selected areas in communications, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 535547, 2000. [5] T. Park, T. Kim, J. Choi, S. Choi, and W. Kwon, Throughput and energy consumption analysis of IEEE 802.15. 4 slotted CSMA/CA, Electronics Letters, vol. 41, no. 18, pp. 10171019, 2005. [6] S. Pollin, M. Ergen, S. Ergen, B. Bougard, L. Van der Perre, I. Moerman, A. Bahai, P. Varaiya, and F. Catthoor, Performance analysis of slotted carrier sense IEEE 802.15. 4 medium access layer, IEEE Transactions on wireless communications, vol. 7, no. 9, p. 3359, 2008. [7] R. Patro, M. Raina, V. Ganapathy, M. Shamaiah, and C. Thejaswi, Analysis and improvement of contention access protocol in ieee 802.15. 4 star network, Mobile Adhoc and Sensor Systems, 2007. MASS 2007, pp. 18, 2007. [8] J. Misic, V. Misic, and S. Sha, Performance of IEEE 802.15. 4 beacon enabled PAN with uplink transmissions in non-saturation mode-access delay for nite buffers, IEEE Computer Society, 2004. [9] J. Misic, S. Sha, and V. Misic, The impact of MAC parameters on the performance of 802.15. 4 PAN, Ad Hoc Networks, vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 509528, 2005. [10] C. Jung, H. Hwang, D. Sung, and G. Hwang, Enhanced Markov chain model and throughput analysis of the slotted CSMA/CA for IEEE 802.15. 4 under unsaturated trafc conditions, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 58, no. 1, pp. 473478, 2009. [11] J. Zheng and M. Lee, A comprehensive performance study of IEEE 802.15. 4, Sensor network operations, pp. 218237, 2006. [12] G. Lu, B. Krishnamachari, and C. Raghavendra, Performance evaluation of the ieee 802.15. 4 mac for low-rate low-power wireless networks, in Performance, Computing, and Communications, 2004 IEEE International Conference on. IEEE, 2004, pp. 701706. [13] A. Koubaa, M. Alves, and E. Tovar, A comprehensive simulation study of slotted CSMA/CA for IEEE 802.15. 4 wireless sensor networks, IEEE WFCS, pp. 183192, 2006.

Figure 7. Probability of CCA2 being busy ( ) for different number of nodes n and packet size L

The probability of deferment increases with the number of nodes n and packet size L. Therefore, at the start of a new superframe, two or more nodes will access the channel at the same time. Collision will occur, which in turn decreases the overall throughput. Therefore, throughput will be less for IEEE 802.15.4/2003 as compared to IEEE 802.15.4/2006. This is illustrated in Figures 8, where throughput for CSMA_03 and CSMA_06 is plotted for different number of nodes n and packet size L. The rate of deferment is less for the small packet size as the number of slots required for the successful packet transmission in the current superframe is less and hence less collision occurs at the start of a new superframe. Therefore, there is less improvement in throughput as compared to the 802.15.4/2003 standard. However, for a large packet size, transmission of a packet cannot be completed within the current superframe. Therefore, deferment of packets is more frequent to new superframe. When the number of nodes increases, the probability of collision at start of a new superframe also increases, which results in less throughput. This collision is avoided in the proposed model and as a result signicant improvement in throughput can be seen. The results obtained with the proposed analytical model provide analysis that is more accurate by evaluating the impact of deferred transmission on the performance of CSMA. The analytical results validate our simulation results for throughput [3], which reports the same trend for throughput. V. CONCLUSION In this paper, an accurate Markov chain model for the CSMA/CA algorithm of IEEE 802.15.4/2006 has been proposed, which includes the deferred transmission. The effect of deferments on throughput has been analyzed for CSMA_03