Zigbee Wireless Sensor Networks: Performance Study in an Apartment-Based Indoor Environment

Zigbee is a very popular technology for Internet of things (IoT) networks mainly because of its low power consumption and low-cost features. It shares the unlicensed 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) radio band with other wireless networks such as Wi-Fi. Usually, Zigbee and Wi-Fi net...

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Main Authors: Biswajit Kumar Dash, Jun Peng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2022-01-01
Series:Journal of Computer Networks and Communications
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/2144702
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author Biswajit Kumar Dash
Jun Peng
author_facet Biswajit Kumar Dash
Jun Peng
author_sort Biswajit Kumar Dash
collection DOAJ
description Zigbee is a very popular technology for Internet of things (IoT) networks mainly because of its low power consumption and low-cost features. It shares the unlicensed 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) radio band with other wireless networks such as Wi-Fi. Usually, Zigbee and Wi-Fi networks coexist in indoor environments for their respective applications. Hence, the coexistence introduces interference for both types of networks lowering the performance of the networks, but Zigbee suffers more significant performance losses because of its lower transmission power than Wi-Fi. Since the number of IoT devices is increasing at an unprecedented rate due to numerous emerging applications and thus making the indoor environments very populous, the peaceful coexistence between Zigbee and Wi-Fi networks in proximity becomes an important research study. For this purpose, this paper presents a comprehensive performance study of a Zigbee network in the presence of a Wi-Fi interference network in a real-life apartment-based indoor environment where Wi-Fi access points of dense neighbors exist. The experiments were done in a XBee module-based Zigbee network for measuring the received signal strength indicator (RSSI), packet drop rate (PDR), and loopback throughput with and without nearby Wi-Fi traffic introduced on purpose. Various networking parameters such as the operating channels, the distances between Zigbee devices and Wi-Fi devices, the transmit timeout of Zigbee packets, and the transmission power of the Zigbee transmitter have been used in the experiments to study the network performance. Our results show that in the deployment of IoT networks in a smart home, radio interference from neighboring homes would not be an important factor, but serious considerations may need to be taken inside the same home. The experimental observations of this paper can serve as a good reference study for Zigbee network deployments in real indoor environments, particularly when interference sources are present in proximity.
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spelling doaj-art-bd55dfea5c7747759d81ce14d49374762025-02-03T01:06:58ZengWileyJournal of Computer Networks and Communications2090-715X2022-01-01202210.1155/2022/2144702Zigbee Wireless Sensor Networks: Performance Study in an Apartment-Based Indoor EnvironmentBiswajit Kumar Dash0Jun Peng1Department of Electrical and Computer EngineeringDepartment of Electrical and Computer EngineeringZigbee is a very popular technology for Internet of things (IoT) networks mainly because of its low power consumption and low-cost features. It shares the unlicensed 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) radio band with other wireless networks such as Wi-Fi. Usually, Zigbee and Wi-Fi networks coexist in indoor environments for their respective applications. Hence, the coexistence introduces interference for both types of networks lowering the performance of the networks, but Zigbee suffers more significant performance losses because of its lower transmission power than Wi-Fi. Since the number of IoT devices is increasing at an unprecedented rate due to numerous emerging applications and thus making the indoor environments very populous, the peaceful coexistence between Zigbee and Wi-Fi networks in proximity becomes an important research study. For this purpose, this paper presents a comprehensive performance study of a Zigbee network in the presence of a Wi-Fi interference network in a real-life apartment-based indoor environment where Wi-Fi access points of dense neighbors exist. The experiments were done in a XBee module-based Zigbee network for measuring the received signal strength indicator (RSSI), packet drop rate (PDR), and loopback throughput with and without nearby Wi-Fi traffic introduced on purpose. Various networking parameters such as the operating channels, the distances between Zigbee devices and Wi-Fi devices, the transmit timeout of Zigbee packets, and the transmission power of the Zigbee transmitter have been used in the experiments to study the network performance. Our results show that in the deployment of IoT networks in a smart home, radio interference from neighboring homes would not be an important factor, but serious considerations may need to be taken inside the same home. The experimental observations of this paper can serve as a good reference study for Zigbee network deployments in real indoor environments, particularly when interference sources are present in proximity.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/2144702
spellingShingle Biswajit Kumar Dash
Jun Peng
Zigbee Wireless Sensor Networks: Performance Study in an Apartment-Based Indoor Environment
Journal of Computer Networks and Communications
title Zigbee Wireless Sensor Networks: Performance Study in an Apartment-Based Indoor Environment
title_full Zigbee Wireless Sensor Networks: Performance Study in an Apartment-Based Indoor Environment
title_fullStr Zigbee Wireless Sensor Networks: Performance Study in an Apartment-Based Indoor Environment
title_full_unstemmed Zigbee Wireless Sensor Networks: Performance Study in an Apartment-Based Indoor Environment
title_short Zigbee Wireless Sensor Networks: Performance Study in an Apartment-Based Indoor Environment
title_sort zigbee wireless sensor networks performance study in an apartment based indoor environment
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/2144702
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AT junpeng zigbeewirelesssensornetworksperformancestudyinanapartmentbasedindoorenvironment