Optimizing the setup phase of an IEEE 802.15.4 wireless sensor network

Wireless sensor networks are increasingly used for remote monitoring, fire detection and emergency response. Such networks are equipped with small devices powered by batteries and designed to be operated for years. They are often based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard which defines low power and low data rate protocols. One of the drawbacks of this kind of wireless sensor networks is their need of long time to be completely deployed. In this paper, we propose two new mechanisms called SNAIL and Bull´s Eye in order to reduce the network establishment time and to increase the number of nodes that can join a network in a reasonable time. They also increase the number of associated nodes in the network in a given time. Simulation results show that these mechanisms have better performance than the traditional procedure in terms of percentage of associated nodes and setup time of the network.