From IEEE 802.15.4 to IEEE 802.15.4e: A Step Towards the Internet of ThingsAdvances onto the Internet of Things

Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSANs) are expected to have a key role in the realization of the future Internet of Things that will connect to the Internet any kind of devices, living beings, and things. A number of standards have been released over the last years to support their development and encourage inter-operability. In addition IETF has defined a set of protocols to allow the integration of sensor and actuator devices into the Internet. In this chapter we focus on the 802.15.4e, released by IEEE in 2012 to enhance and add functionality to the previous 802.15.4 standard, so as to address the emerging needs of embedded industrial applications. We describe how the limitations of the 802.15.4 standard have been overcome by the new standard, and we also show some simulation results to better highlight this point.