The EuWIn Testbed for 802.15.4/Zigbee Networks: From the Simulation to the Real World

Abstract

EuWIn is the ”European Laboratory of Wireless
\nCommunications for the Future Internet” recently established
\nand funded under the umbrella of the EC FP7 Network of
\nExcellence on Wireless Communications, Newcom. The focus of
\nthe EuWIn site in Bologna (Italy) is the Internet of Things. One
\nof its scopes is to set up a network composed of 100 radio devices
\ncompliant with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, flexible enough to
\nallow the development and testing of any routing algorithm
\ncompatible with such a standard. This paper reports the first
\ncomparison of results achieved through an NS-2 simulator
\ndeveloped at LIMOS, CNRS (France), with those of the true
\nnetwork available in Bologna. Results in terms of packet error
\nrate and overhead generated achieved through the two platforms,
\nimplementing the same protocol stack, is shown. The differences
\nraised, concerning the practical issues normally not accounted
\nby the simulations, are carefully investigated and discussed.