doc.: IEEE 802.15-<doc#> <month year> doc.: IEEE 802.15-<doc#> March 2004 Project: IEEE P802.15 Working Group for Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) Submission Title: [An overview of 15-04-0093-00-004b] Date Submitted: [12 March, 2004] Source: [Phil Beecher] Company [CompXs Ltd] Address [Robert Denholm House, Bletchingley Road, Nutfield, Surrey, RH1 4HW, UK] Voice:[+44 1737 822509], FAX: [+44 1737 823685], E-Mail:[pbeecher@comxps.com] Re: [802.15.4 – 2003, DCN 15-04-0093-00-004b ] Abstract: [An overview of “Clarifications, Recommended Practices and Proposals for 802.15.4 - 2003] Purpose: [Informational - This is a introduction to DCN 15-04-0093-00-004b ] Notice: This document has been prepared to assist the IEEE P802.15. It is offered as a basis for discussion and is not binding on the contributing individual(s) or organization(s). The material in this document is subject to change in form and content after further study. The contributor(s) reserve(s) the right to add, amend or withdraw material contained herein. Release: The contributor acknowledges and accepts that this contribution becomes the property of IEEE and may be made publicly available by P802.15. Phil Beecher, CompXs <author>, <company>

Comments regarding 802.15.4-2003 An Overview of March 2004 Comments regarding 802.15.4-2003 An Overview of 15-04-0093-00-004b, Clarifications, Recommended Practices and Proposals for 802.15.4 - 2003 Phil Beecher, CompXs

doc.: IEEE 802.15-<doc#> <month year> doc.: IEEE 802.15-<doc#> March 2004 Summary Enhancements for beacon-enabled PANs PD-SAP and PLME-SAP improvements Miscellaneous Clarifications Phil Beecher, CompXs <author>, <company>

Beacon Enabled PANs Three Issues March 2004 Beacon Enabled PANs Three Issues Coordinator realignment to indicate a change of PAN characteristics Secondary coordinators Active channel scan Phil Beecher, CompXs

Coordinator realignment March 2004 Coordinator realignment The problem: Devices will only receive the coordinator realignment frame if macRxOnWhenIdle is TRUE. A possible solution? The coordinator transmits the coordinator realignment frame in place of the next beacon, ensuring that this frame will be received by any device tracking beacons from this coordinator. Phil Beecher, CompXs

Secondary Coordinators March 2004 Secondary Coordinators Section 7.5.2.4 states: “All beacon frames shall be transmitted at the beginning of each superframe at an interval equal to aBaseSuperframeDuration * 2n symbols, where n is the value of macBeaconOrder”. This causes a problem in PANs which have a PAN coordinator and one or more “secondary” coordinators. In this case, all coordinators must transmit their beacons at the same time. Phil Beecher, CompXs

March 2004 Active Channel Scan The problem: What scan duration should be used when performing an active scan in a beacon-enabled PAN to both minimise latency and stand a good chance of detecting beaconing coordinators? (Currently, the duration must be equal to the beacon order to guarantee receipt of a beacon). Possible solution: Define an “ad-hoc” beacon which is transmitted using CSMA-CA on receipt of a beacon request. Phil Beecher, CompXs

March 2004 PHY Interface PD-DATA.request and some PLME primitives do not provide a mechanism for reporting errors. For example: PLME-SET.request(phyChannelsSupported, value) is probably invalid, but there is no way for the PHY to report this. Phil Beecher, CompXs

Miscellaneous Clarifications March 2004 Miscellaneous Clarifications There are areas of the specification that are ambiguous, e.g. Promiscuous mode is not detailed. macTransactionPersistenceTime is not clearly defined. Phil Beecher, CompXs