IEEE 802.15.4 Performance on a Hierarchical Hybrid Sensor Network Platform

A wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of a large number of sensor nodes designed to collect information about an environment and transmit the accumulated data using a wireless technology to a base station known as Sink. In this way, the wireless technology is an important factor in the design of a sensor network. Several wireless technologies are available, but IEEE 802.15.4 is the most commonly used for WSN since this MAC protocol is designed for low data rate, short distance, and low power consumption communication applications in conformity with WSN constraints. However, the complexity of novel applications has resulted in WSN driven by two conflicting criteria which are energy consumption and delay. In this article, we study energy consumption and delay using 802.15.4 on a new generic hybrid wireless sensor network platform based on Fox board and low power sensor nodes such as Tmote Sky or Crossbow motes. We analyse different scenarios at each layer of the hybrid architecture. This paper evaluate the strengh of the antagonism between energy and delay in IEEE 802.15.4.