Performance analysis of 6LoWPAN protocol for a flood monitoring system

Abstract

The internet of things is a disruptive technology that has been applied as a solution to problems in many fields of monitoring environmental variables. It is supported by technologies such as wireless sensor networks, which offer many protocols and hardware platforms in the market today. Protocols such as 6LoWPAN are novel, so this work focuses on determining whether its implementation on TelosB mote is feasible; these would be placed on an experimental deployment for a particular scenario of flash floods in a sector known as “La Brigada”, in the city of Barranquilla. This proposal has not been evaluated in Colombia for this type of application, and no similar work has been done for this type of scenario. For the evaluation of 6LoWPAN, a deployment with two end nodes and a sink node has been designed, due to the monitoring section under study; 5-min tests are proposed where through round trip time traffic PINGv6 packets are generated back and forth (Echo) between a sink node and two end nodes. The results are based on the evaluation of metrics such as delay and ping packet request/ response rate. The performance of these metrics is subject to test scenarios that vary according to distance, packet size, and channel scan time. Two routing options, static or dynamic, are also proposed for this application case. The tests performed yielded results in terms of better performance in the test scenarios for packets with an average size of 120 B and channel monitoring times of 1024 ms. Likewise, the use of the TelosB platform was validated as a viable and innovative option for a monitoring scenario to flash floods in short stretches of the city of Barranquilla—Colombia. This study is important because it can provide information on the use of the TelosB platform as a valid solution for similar application scenarios; furthermore, the tests performed can be replicated in similar studies to evaluate congestion, power consumption, routing, topologies, and other metrics. This study is providing a road map for the research community to follow the simulation scenario to apply the test to their own studies. This work also provides the guidelines for similar researchers to monitor the flood in their own regions and then compare their results with this study.