Packet Format

Messages on the IEEE PHY layer always have the following structure:

Element Length

Length of the recieved packet, including PHY Header.

PHY Header

carries the frame length byte, which indicates the length of the PHY Service Data Unit (PSDU).

MAC Header and Payload

which has the frame control, a Data Sequence Number, address data, and payload.

MAC Footer (FCS)

contains a 16-bit Frame Check Sequence.

RSSI

a byte indicating the received RSSI value (Optional).

Status

May contain receive correlation, and crc result bit field (optional).

Source Index

a byte giving the index of the first source matching entry that matches the header of the received packet is appended, or 0xFF if no match (optional).

Time Stamp

a time stamp indicating the start of the frame (optional).

‘0 - 2 bytes’	‘0 or 1 bytes’	‘0 - 125 bytes’	‘0 or 2 bytes’	‘0 or 1 byte’	‘0 or 1 byte’	‘0 or 1 byte’	‘0 or 4 byte’
‘Element Length’	‘PHY Header’	MAC Header and Payload	MAC Footer (FCS)	RSSI	‘Status’	‘Source Index’	‘Time Stamp’