Effects of Wireless Sensor Network Topology on Response Time

A wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of sensors that are distributed in order to control and monitor environmental conditions such as sound, temperature, and humidity. The Zigbee network can be used in a WSN. A ZigBee network is characterized by low bitrate, low energy consumption, and low cost. Sometimes, these networks are exposed to emergency conditions that require discontinuation of the data sent by some sensors from the source point to the point of ultimate reception. Therefore, a means of accessing such data more quickly and efficiently should be considered. This paper is devoted to solving the problem by evaluating the topology of two networks-the mesh topology and the star topology of ZigBee networks-in terms of throughput, dropped traffic, and latency. The results demonstrate that throughput is better in a mesh topology than in a star topology, which also shows better latency than a star topology.