American International University

Bangladesh

Faculty of Engineering
Department of Electrical & Electronic
Engineering

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*PROJECT/THESIS TITLE: Implementation of the features of
the ZigBee Protocol and IEEE 802.15.4 MAC Specification
and performance evaluation of different ZigBee topologies.
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Thesis Title: Implementation of the features of the ZigBee Protocol and IEEE 802.15.4 MAC
Specification and performance evaluation of different ZigBee topologies.
Goals and Potential benefits of the Thesis:
This primary goal of this thesis is to demonstrate some of the implemented features of the
ZigBee protocol and IEEE 802.15.4 MAC specification, using OPNET's ZigBee model suite,
like:
1. Mesh routing vs. tree routing,
2. Roaming between Personal Area Network (PANs) &
3. Failure and Recovery procedures.
Then the performance of the three topologies (Star, Tree and Mesh topology) will be analyzed.
Recently, ZigBee technology has been widely adopted to develop wireless sensor network
applications [1] by forming a wireless mesh network with low rate, low power consumption, and
secure networking. In ZigBee protocol stack, the physical layer and the MAC layer protocols
have been defined by IEEE802.15.4 standard [2]. Its network layer built upon both lower layers
should be designed to enable a mesh networking, support node joining or leaving, assign
network addresses to devices, and perform routing. ZigBee Alliance is working at providing a
standardized base set of solutions for sensor networks [3].
Wireless sensor networks generally comprise a large number of sensor nodes deployed in an
area of interest to collect physical or environmental conditions, such as temperature, humidity,
pressure, etc. In wireless sensor networks, performance evaluation is critical to test the

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practicability of network architectures and protocol algorithms, and provides guidelines in

performance optimization.

Simulation Scenario:

Figure 1: Tree Topology

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Figure 2: Mesh Topology

The two scenarios contain identical networks. The same network tree structure forms in each
case. The majority of the nodes have been configured with Random traffic, however Router 1
has been explicitly configured to send traffic to Router 3.
The PAN in the Tree Routing scenario (Figure 1) has been configured as a Default Tree
Network. Application traffic will be routed to the destination along the parent-child links of the
network tree.
The PAN in the Mesh Routing scenario (Figure 2) has been configured as a Default Mesh
Network. After mesh routes have been established (a few seconds after network formation),
application traffic will be routed by the shortest route possible, using any router or coordinator
in the simulation as a relay. End devices do not participate in mesh routing, therefore they
must still route traffic through their parent node.
Results:
1) Number of Hops for Router 1:
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Figure 3 indicates the number of hops network traffic originating in Router 1 takes to reach
its destination. The red line is for Tree Routing while the blue is for Mesh Routing. Note
that both lines begin at two hops, but the Mesh Routing line quickly changes to one hop for
the remainder of the simulation.

Figure 3: Number of Hops for Router 1

2) End-to-end Delay for Router 1:

The red line in figure 4 indicates ETE Delay for Router 1 in the Tree Routing scenario
while the blue line indicates ETE Delay for Router 1 in Mesh Routing. The ETE Delay in
Mesh Routing is lower due to the mesh routing process finding more efficient route than
tree based routing (1 hop vs. 2 hops).

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Figure 4: End-to-end Delay for Router 1

3) Global MAC Load per PAN:

The red line (Figure 5) is the total load for the Tree Routing scenario while the blue line is
total load for Mesh Routing. The load for Mesh Routing is lower due to fewer hops for
application traffic resulting in less overall traffic seen at the MAC layer. Also note that is a
very small spike in load for Mesh Routing near the beginning of the simulation that is not
seen for Tree Routing. This is due to the routing messages being broadcast at that time.

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Figure 5: Global MAC Load per PAN

References:
[1] ZigBee Alliance (2005) Zigbee specification V1.0. Available: http://www.ZigBee.org
[2] IEEE Standards Association (2011) IEEE standard for local and metropolitan area networks
Part 15.4: Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPANs).
Available: http://standards.ieee.org/ about/get/802/802.15.html
[3] IEEE Standards Association (2011) IEEE standard for local and metropolitan area networks
Part 15.4: Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPANs).
Available: http://standards.ieee.org/about/get/802/802.15.html

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