Exploiting frame length of 802.15.4g signals for wake-up control in sensor networks

Sensor networks are playing more and more important roles, e.g., accurately monitoring the generation and consumption of electric power for the purpose of smart grid. In these applications, sensor nodes, working with battery, should be put into sleep in the idle state to prolong network lifetime and be activated on demand to ensure real-time response. State-of-the-art schemes merely exploiting duty-cycling cannot simultaneously satisfy these two requirements. In this paper, we exploit frame length of 802.15.4g signals for the wake-up control of sensor nodes. A wake-up ID is modulated onto frame lengths of consecutive signals defined by the mode switch mechanism, transmitted by a sensor node using the standard 802.15.4g protocol, and detected by a non-802.15.4g, low-power wake-up receiver. A prototype wake-up receiver is implemented by using FPGA. It consists of two-stage wake-up control in the sense that duty-cycling is also exploited in the detection of wake-up signals. The proposed scheme achieves a better tradeoff between power-consumption and wake-up latency, compared with the conventional duty-cycling schemes. The experimental evaluation confirms that the wake-up control meets the sensitivity requirement of data communications.