Code repository for Markovian Analysis of the IEEE-802.15.6 Slotted-ALOHA

Description

The IEEE 802.15.6 communication standard comprises of a unique set of physical (PHY) layer and medium access layer (MAC) sub-layer specifications, specifically for short-distance and low-energy communication at a higher data rate around and within the human body. In this work, we design a discrete-time Markov chain (DTMC) to model the different states of a node in the IEEE 802.15.6 slotted Aloha access mechanism. Our work takes into consideration the node behavior with saturated network traffic and non-ideal channel conditions. Unlike the existing works, we consider the wait-duration of a node after a frame transmitting, when we construct the DTMC. We, then, analyze the performance of the standard with respect to collision probability, throughput, and mean power consumption. User Priority (UP)-based analysis of the results are also presented, as we investigate the significance of the eight distinct UPs added by the communication standard. From results, we observe that five UPs with unique values of CP min are sufficient, while higher UP-nodes get advantage in terms of every performance metric, the lower UP-nodes may have to suffer in terms of high packet drop rate, low throughput, and excessive power consumption.