A-stack: A real-time protocol stack for IEEE 802.15.4 radios

This paper presents the A-Stack, a real-time protocol stack for time-synchronized, multi-channel and slotted communication in multi-hop wireless networks. The stack is developed to meet the reliability, latency and accuracy requirements of real-time applications such as wireless automation and wireless structural health monitoring and to provide a flexible development environment for such applications. It includes MAC, routing and time-synchronization protocols as well as a node-joining algorithm. The stack is further supplemented with PC tools for optimizing the network as per the target application for easy prototyping. The design and operational aspects of the stack are verified under various deployment scenarios where the long term system and communication reliability are also tested.