An In-Depth Analysis of Application Protocols Performances in Various IoT Network Environments

The Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a transformative technology, revolutionizing critical domains such as healthcare, transportation, and energy management by enabling seamless connectivity, real-time data insights, and enhanced automation. Therefore, considerations for both intrinsic and extrinsic constraints are essential in the design of application protocols for IoT networks. IoT nodes often have limited processing power, memory capacity, and battery life. Furthermore, these nodes are interconnected wirelessly within a topology that undergoes dynamic and random changes. This in-depth study aims to analyze the performance of MQTT-SN (Message Queuing Telemetry Protocol for Sensor Networks) and CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol), which are widely regarded as prominent options for the IoT application layer. The analysis focuses on evaluating the control overhead and total energy consumption associated with these protocols under various scenarios of topologies and densities of IoT networks.The simulation results reveal a significant difference in the generation of control packets at the network level between CoAP and MQTT-SN. Specifically, CoAP exhibits a higher control overhead, which varies based on the network density, while maintaining equivalent energy consumption for both protocols. Moreover, CoAP demonstrates superior efficiency in transmitting application data messages compared to MQTT- SN under similar network constraints.