Study and Analysis of IEEE 802.15.4 Media Access Control (MAC)

The Low rate wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPAN) allows the optional use of a superframe structure. The superframe is bounded by network beacons and is divided into 16 equally sized slots. The superframe can have an active and an inactive portion. During the inactive portion, the coordinator shall not interact with its PAN and may enter a low-power mode. The format of the superframe is defined by the coordinator. The active portion consists of Contention Access Period (CAP) and contention free period (CFP)