Performance Comparison of 802.11 and 802.15.4 based Networks

Abstract: The continuous improvement of sensor skill and wireless communication is encouraging wireless sensor networking. IEEE 802.15.4 was developed to meet the needs for simple, low-power and low-cost wireless communication. In the past couple of years it has become a popular technology for wireless sensor networks[1]. It is a standard which specifies the physical and MAC layer for Low Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks(LR-WPANs) and it operates primarily in the 2.4GHz ISM band. Wireless Sensor Networks are adopted in many ways, including industrial controls, hospitals, hotels, home/office automation, environmental monitoring etc. However, IEEE 802.15.4 is potentially vulnerable to interference by other wireless technologies working in this band such as IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth. Here we have given a short overview of the IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.15.4 and carefully analyze the properties and compare the performance of IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.15.4 through simulation and measurement of jitter, End-to-End delay and packet dropped parameters, using NS2. Furthermore we present simulation results from the evaluation of the IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.15.4 We evaluate and compare the performance by taking 10,20 and 30 nodes for both 802.11 and 802.15.4 based networks.

Keywords: Wireless sensor networks, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15.4, jitter, End-to-End delay, packet dropped, NS2