Effects of ZigBee component failure on the WSN performance with different topologies

The IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee protocol stack offers a practical application solution for low cost, low data rate, and low energy consumption characteristics for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). In this paper, there are two scenarios studied. First, the three possible topologies (Star, Cluster tree and Mesh) are compared with each other at the case of various nodes failure as ZC, ZR and ZED to certify the reliability of this networks. There is just one ZigBee coordinator in each topology. The comparison includes the statistics: Data Traffic Sent, Data Traffic Received, Throughput and Delay. These statistics are performed taking into account the specific features and recommendations of the IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee standard. Second, the Cluster Tree Topology with a single ZC is chosen and compared with a similar network that has an additional ZC. The network will two ZC's forms two PANs. The comparison includes the statistics: Data Traffic Received, Data Traffic Sent, Throughput and Delay. The simulations will be performed using Riverbed Modeler Academic Edition 17.5 Simulation.