Design and Simulation of Wireless Sensor Network Topologies Using the ZigBee Standard

Wireless sensor networks are network systems consisting of hundreds, even thousands of sensor nodes connected to each other through a wireless environment. Sensor nodes have complex functions, such as the detection, collection, calculation and routing of surrounding data with predefined criteria by placing them randomly or according to a certain strategy into diverse areas. In this study, the IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee wireless communication standard was used, which is more advantageous than other wireless communication standards with respect to parameters like battery usage and low power consumption, providing high performance with short-range sensors as well as making it possible to use 3 different band frequencies in the world. Additionally, the RIVERBED (OPNET) Academic Edition 17.5 simulator, capable of generating correct results and analysis to identify the actual behavior of the real system, was used. With this simulator program, the performances of star, tree, and mesh topologies supported by the ZigBee standard were compared based on end-to-end delay, throughput, mac load and traffic received parameters. Then, the performance analyses were conducted on different PANs (Personal Area Network) using single and dual ZigBee coordinators. Finally, network fixed and mobile node behavior was compared with respect to the quality parameters of the end-to-end delay and traffic received by the destination.