Transmission Power Level Selection Method Based On Binary Search Algorithm for HiLOW

Recently the sensor communication research has introduced an IP-based communication known as 6LoWPAN to sensor network. 6LoWPAN was introduced to give a new perspective to sensor network by enabling IPv6 to be applied to wireless sensors as well as wired sensor. Dedicated routing protocols based on 6LoWPAN was soon introduced and Hierarchical Routing Protocol for 6LoWPAN (HiLOW) is one of them. HiLOW clearly defines the routing tree setup process, address allocation technique and the data routing process but there is some shortcomings in terms of transmission power selection. HiLOW does not highlight how the suitable transmission power is being selected for sensor communication purpose and this leads to the assumption that at all time and all scenarios the sensors are using maximum transmission power. In the case the sensors are using maximum transmission power for communication even when it is not necessary then power depletion for sensors will be amplified and the network lifetime will be significantly reduced. In this paper we present a brief introduction to 6LoWPAN, a concise review on HiLOW, a highlight on issues revolving each process in HiLOW and propose a new idea on transmission power selection method for HiLOW.