High-Density Resource-Restricted Pulse-Based IoT Networks

For the realization of an Internet of Things (IoT) with high densities of devices it is necessary that wireless communication protocols are developed that offer 1) low energy consumption; 2) simplicity of encoding and decoding; 3) an asynchronous mode of communication; and 4) an effective but simple method to deal with interference between transmissions. This paper presents the implementation, experimentation, and analysis of a protocol on the MAC sublayer that encodes information in terms of silent intervals between pulses. Based on the representation of patterns of sparse pulses, this encoding has the potential for extremely low power consumption at the transmitter side. It also results in only few conflicts between messages that are broadcast on the same band overlapped in time, while no synchronization between transmitters and receivers is necessary. The protocol is demonstrated experimentally on the 315 MHz band with 100 senders and one receiver configured in a Star topology. Theoretical analysis confirms that the probability of conflicts between messages is low, even if the number of devices increases to the order of ten thousand. This protocol facilitates the implementation of IoT devices that are restricted in terms of hardware and energy resources.