Application of decay rate analysis for GTS provisioning in wireless sensor networks

In a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) the provision of a Guaranteed Time Slot (GTS) in a beacon enabled mode is best suited for applications with low latency and high Quality of Service (QoS) requirements such as those of real time traffic. However the advancements in technology have dramatically increased the volume of applications which require access to this real time service provision in such areas as healthcare, asset tracking, environmental monitoring, and military projects. Each super-frame structure contains only seven GTS's with the remaining time slots provisioned for the Contention Access Period (CAP) where applications with higher tolerance of latency vie for a position to transmit data. The restrictions within the Contention Free Period (CFP) to seven time slots per superframe structure, places enormous responsibilities on the network designers to dimension networks that can guarantee a high QoS. This work plans to apply decay rate analysis to GTS provisioning. Appropriate buffer dimensioning for specific applications can be achieved by predetermining the probability of buffer capacity. This will enable adequate parameter settings to be configured within a WSN to meet all real time traffic needs.