Performance evaluation of ZigBEE/802.15.4 for implementation of wireless ad-hoc network

Abstract

Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET) is a self-structured and self-controlled network. The nodes can sense, process and communicate wirelessly. They are portable, compact and battery powered. These abilities of MANETs make them useful for the applications where fixed infrastructure is not available or is temporarily down due some calamity. They can be used in rescue/disaster relief operation, forest animal surveillance, military surveillance and data exchange in lecture hall etc. Researchers are working on various constraints of MANET, such as limited battery power and bandwidth, lack of central administration and security, need of specialized routing etc. But easy deployment without necessity of physical infrastructure makes MANETs a preferred choice for “wireless communication network”. Researchers have used different techniques viz. simulation, emulation and real world implementation to evaluate the performance of MANET to reduce the impact of these limitations. Simulations assume real time scenarios to test the performance which many a times may not result into expected outcomes. Emulation enables repetitive testing of network scenarios with constraints much similar to the real world, but their per node deployment price is greater than simulation. The simplest form of real world implementation of MANET node can be an embedded circuit with microcontroller, radio transceiver, power source, memory and sensor/s module. This paper presents a study on performance evaluation of low power and low cost-“ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4” as a wireless radio transceiver in the node design. The experimental analysis of variation in number of obstacles and distance between the nodes that affects the performance of the network in terms of range, network area, packet delivery ratio and latency is presented. Considering the performance of ZigBee with its limitations can help researchers to decide the suitable environment, distance between nodes and frame size to establish a wireless ad hoc network for reliable and efficient communication.