OpenWSN: a standards‐based low‐power wireless development environment

TLDR

OpenWSN is an open‑source, standards‑based protocol stack built on IEEE802.15.4e and IoT standards that enables ultra‑low‑power, highly reliable mesh networks integrated into the Internet, positioning it as a cornerstone for the forthcoming machine‑to‑machine revolution and enabling applications powered by micro‑scavenging devices. This article provides an overview of the protocol stack, key integration details, and the platforms and tools developed around it. The authors ported the pure‑C OpenWSN stack to four representative off‑the‑shelf platforms ranging from 16‑bit microcontrollers to 32‑bit Cortex‑M, and developed visualization/debugging software, a PC‑based simulator, and an Internet‑connection environment for low‑power mesh networks. Experimental results show motes running at an average radio duty cycle below 0.1% and a current draw of 68 µA on off‑the‑shelf hardware, and OpenWSN is the first open‑source implementation of IEEE802.15.4e. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

ABSTRACT The OpenWSN project is an open‐source implementation of a fully standards‐based protocol stack for capillary networks, rooted in the new IEEE802.15.4e Time Synchronized Channel Hopping standard. IEEE802.15.4e, coupled with Internet of Things standards, such as 6LoWPAN, RPL and CoAP, enables ultra‐low‐power and highly reliable mesh networks, which are fully integrated into the Internet. The resulting protocol stack will be cornerstone to the upcoming machine‐to‐machine revolution. This article gives an overview of the protocol stack, as well as key integration details and the platforms and tools developed around it. The pure‐C OpenWSN stack was ported to four off‐the‐shelf platforms representative of hardware currently used, from older 16‐bit microcontroller to state‐of‐the‐art 32‐bit Cortex‐M architectures. The tools developed around the low‐power mesh networks include visualisation and debugging software, a simulator to mimic OpenWSN networks on a PC, and the environment needed to connect those networks to the Internet. Experimental results presented in this article include a network where motes operate at an average radio duty cycle well below 0.1% and an average current draw of 68 μA on off‐the‐shelf hardware. These ultra‐low‐power requirements enable a range of applications, with motes perpetually powered by micro‐scavenging devices. OpenWSN is, to the best of our knowledge, the first open‐source implementation of the IEEE802.15.4e standard. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.