Comparative Performance evaluation on Priority
based ZigBee Network with tree and mesh routing
Nimi T
Department of Electronics Engineering
School of Engineering and Technology
Pondicherry University
Puducherry-605014, India
nimi.madhavan25@gmail.com
Abstract— ZigBee is newly emerging short distance
communication standard which plays a vital role in wireless
networking applications. The ZigBee supporting network
topologies includes star, tree and mesh. Studies show that mesh
routing has more advantages over tree routing such as mesh
routing in ZigBee device allows to form ad-hoc network with no
centralized control. In this paper, a priority mechanism is
appended in ZigBee network model with mesh routing which
gives better results and a comparative study is done based on
performance of ZigBee network with tree and mesh routing. The
comparative performance analysis in terms of throughput, data
dropped MAC delay, queue size and queuing delay and number
of hops is also carried out. Opnet simulator along with Visual
Studio 2005 is used for simulation.
Keywords— Data dropped, IEEE 802.15.4, Hop Number, MAC
Delay, Opnet Modeler, Queue size and queuing delay, Throughput,
ZigBee
I. INTRODUCTION
ZigBee is a recent wireless networking technology defined
by ZigBee Alliance and IEEE 802.15.4 widely for industrial
and home automation purpose. The peculiarities such as high
data reliability, low cost, less consumption of power, less
maintenance, high security made ZigBee for being widely
used in all industries. The frequency bands supported by
ZigBee are 868 MHz, 915 MHz and 2.4GHz with data rate of
250 kbps. ZigBee devices are mainly categorized into three
forms. They are ZigBee coordinator (ZC), ZigBee router (ZR)
and ZigBee end device. Among these, coordinator, routers and
sensor devices can be considered as Full Function Device
(FFD) but sensor device is a Reduced Function Device (RFD).
The network must be operated either in star, tree or mesh as
specified in IEEE 802.15.4 standard.
The performance of priority based ZigBee network with
tree routing has been recently proposed and analyzed by N.
Islam et al. [1]. The authors Jun Wang et al. have proposed
energy balanced ZigBee network with pricing approach
incorporating priority method [2]. Manpreet and Jyoteesh
Malhotra [3] have examined and analyzed the tree and mesh
topology by reducing the transmit power and varying power
threshold values. Raju Sharma et al. have explained about
procedure involved in the simulation of ZigBee network with
different topologies by using Opnet simulator [4]. No
researchers have done work based on priority mechanism
978-1-5386-3695-4$31.00 2018
c IEEE
P Samundiswary
Department of Electronics Engineering
School of Engineering and Technology
Pondicherry University
Puducherry-605014, India
samundiswary_pdy@yahoo.com
enabled ZigBee network with mesh routing and also a
performance comparison of mesh and tree routing. In this
work, a comparative performance evaluation on priority based
ZigBee network with tree and mesh topology is done by using
Opnet Modeler 14.5 simulator.
This paper constitutes 4 sections: Section1 deals with
introduction, section 2 comprises about IEEE 802.15.4
standard, ZigBee, ZigBee device types, network topologies,
section 3 holds the scenario of priority based ZigBee network
and comparison of performance parameters with respect to
tree topology, results and section 4 concludes the paper.
II. ZIGBEE OVERVIEW
ZigBee is an open standard which provides wireless
networking and it is developed by ZigBee Alliance [6]. It
takes the advantages of physical radio specified within IEEE
802.15.4 standard. The physical and Media Access Control
layer are specified by IEEE 802.15.4 standard and the other
higher layers are specified by ZigBee Alliance.
The key features of ZigBee are given below:
• Secure
• Easy to deploy
• Less power consumption
• Less maintenance
• Less data rate
• Reliable and self healing
ƒ Supports large number of nodes (65,536 nodes)
ƒ Very long battery life
ƒ Low cost
A. Networking topologies
ZigBee uses various topologies offered by ZigBee Alliance
which specifies the networking layer of ZigBee [10]. The
selection of topology in network depends on the required task.
The network topologies are:
1) Star topology
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 It mainly consists of coordinators and end devices. All end
devices are directly connected to the coordinator device for
data transmission. The main drawback of this star topology is
that the network operation relies on ZigBee Coordinator and
there is no alternative path from sender to receiver. Fig.1
shows the star topology in ZigBee network.
Fig.1. ZigBee network with star topology
2) Tree topology
Tree topology mainly comprises of coordinator (root
node), routers and end devices. End devices are connected to
routers for transmission of data from one node to another. The
role of routers is to extend the coverage area of network. The
drawback is that if one router fails, there are no alternate paths
for end device to connect with network [5]. Fig.2 illustrates
the tree topology in ZigBee network.
Fig.2. ZigBee network with tree topology
3) Mesh topology
Mesh topology is referred as peer to peer network. In this
topology, all routers are interconnected with each other [5] [8].
So, the problem of connection failure which arises when one
node fails can be avoided with the self healing mechanism of
mesh networking. ZigBee with mesh topology is depicted in
fig.3.
Fig.3. ZigBee network with mesh topology
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B. ZigBee device types
The two device types of ZigBee network are Full Function
Devices (FFDs) and Reduced Function Devices (RFDs). A full
function device can execute all duties whereas a reduced
function device has limited capabilities [7]. The coordinator
and routers are Full Function devices. End devices, on the
other hand, are Reduced Function Devices as given in fig.4.
Fig.4. ZigBee device types
III. SIMULATION RESULTS
Initially, ZigBee network is divided to a number of zones.
Each zone consists of same number of nodes. All end devices
are connected to routers and these routers have connection
with Coordinator device. A priority value is assigned for each
zone with the help of payment module [1]. The coordinator
executes the requests from the zone which holds more priority
value. In this method, end device will connect with
coordinator according to the end device’s willingness to pay
for connection. Here, the network is divided to five zones
having equal number of nodes. The priority value of 600, 500,
300, 400, 1100 are given for region 1, 2,3,4,5 respectively.
The region which includes coordinator holds more priority
value. The network topology size is 300x300 meters. The
simulation is done for 10 minutes (600 seconds). The
simulation is executed using Opnet Modeler 14.5 simulator
[9]. The simulation parameters and available nodes in these
regions are given in table1 and table2 respectively.
TABLE 1: AVAILABLE NODES IN USED REGIONS
Region name Available Nodes
1 Nodes 18, 19, 26, 20, 1
2 Nodes 15, 16, 17, 23, 2
3 Nodes 8, 9, 10, 25, 3
4 Nodes 5, 6, 7, 24, 4
5 Nodes 11, 12, 13, 14, 0
TABLE 2: SIMULATION PARAMETERS
Simulation parameters Values
Network size 300x300 m
Destination All Coordinator and routers
Transmit band 2.4GHz
Packet size 1024 bytes
Simulation time 600 seconds
Number of nodes 25
Transmit power 0.5 mW
ACK Mechanism Enable
 A. ZigBee network topology scenario
The network scenario of priority based ZigBee network
with tree routing and mesh routing are shown below in fig.5
and fig.6 respectively.
Fig.5. Scenario1- Priority based ZigBee network with tree topology
Fig.6. Scenario2- Priority based ZigBee network with mesh topology
A. Performance analysis
1) Throughput
Throughput is the amount of data quantity transferred
successfully from one node to another (from sender to
receiver) within a specific period of time in seconds. It
depends on the type of topology used in the network Fig. 7
shows the comparison of data throughput of priority based
ZigBee network with tree and mesh topology.
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Fig.7. Data throughput for priority based ZigBee network with tree and mesh
topology
2) Media Access Delay
MAC delay is calculated as total end to end delay for
transmission of data from MAC layer to higher layers. It is the
time elapsed between the sending the data packets from higher
layer to MAC layer and then from MAC layer to physical
layer thereby to wireless medium . Fig. 8 shows comparison of
MAC delays of priority mechanism included ZigBee network
with tree and mesh topology.
Fig.8. Comparison of MAC delay with tree and mesh topology
3) Queue size and Queuing delay
Queue size is the number of data packets waiting in a
MAC queue for the purpose of execution. Queuing delay is the
time for which a task waits for the execution within a queue.
Fig. 9 and 10 represents comparison of average queue size
and queuing delay in priority based ZigBee network of the
coordinator node (node0) with tree and mesh routing.
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 Fig.9. Average queue size of priority based ZigBee network
Fig.10. Average queuing delay in priority based ZigBee network
4) Data dropped
This happens because MAC could not able to receive
proper acknowledgements from the receiver. It is the
percentage of data lost to the data sent by sender node. The
graph of data dropped for priority based ZigBee network with
tree and mesh topology is shown in fig. 11.
Fig.11. MAC data dropped for priority based ZigBee network
5) Hop number
The hop number indicates the number of times the data
passed through intermediate nodes to reach from source node
to destination node [9]. Fig.12 shows hop number of priority
based ZigBee network with tree and mesh topology.
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Fig.12. Hop Number for priority based ZigBee network
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the two scenarios of ZigBee network are
developed with tree routing and mesh routing. The priority is
incorporated by region synchronization within the network
scenario. The performance parameters such as throughput,
MAC delay, data dropped, queue size, queuing delay and
number of hops are analyzed and Opnet Modeler 14.5
simulator is utilized for this work. The results shows priority
based ZigBee network with mesh routing hold better results in
terms of throughput, data dropped, queue size, queuing delay
compared to the tree routing with less MAC delay. The
topologies, tree and mesh in a priority based ZigBee network
can be selected according to the required network tasks.
Future work covers energy efficient mesh routing ZigBee
network with mobility management for sensing devices.
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