Efficient modeling and performance analysis for IEEE 802.15.4 with coloured Petri nets

IEEE 802.15.4 is the standard protocol for low-rate, low-power wireless personal area networks, including the physical layer and media access control layer specifications. Particularly, some mechanisms for certain purposes, such as transmission efficiency and power saving, are introduced. It is worthwhile to evaluate how the protocol can fulfill the quality of service requirements. Coloured Petri nets are chosen for the modeling and analyzing purposes because of the enhanced modeling power and abundant analysis techniques. The modeling method for wireless network protocols using coloured Petri nets is summarized, which is general enough and can be directly used to model various wireless network protocols like IEEE 802.15.4. During the modeling process, some modeling techniques are utilized, e.g., building the model in the hierarchical and modular way, reducing the model by the folding technique, and normalizing the modeling process by the modeling patterns. Simulation is conducted on the coloured Petri net model to compute some performance metrics such as throughput, delivery ratio, delay, and energy cost. All the above show that coloured Petri nets can play an important role in modeling and analyzing wireless network protocols.