A Simulation-Based Performance Analysis of Various Multipath Routing Techniques in ZigBee Sensor Networks

Multipath routing is generally known for its highly effective performance in applications involving data streaming. However, to date, only a handful of research studies have looked at the performance of multipath routing in WSN systems. Moreover, according to our knowledge, there has been no earlier study on the use of multipath routing in ZigBee WSNs.

In this paper, three multipath routing techniques (Multipath AODV, Multipath DSR, and Multipath ZDR) are compared to ZigBee’s standard AODV single path routing protocol. Simulations are conducted in WSNs of different sizes using the IEEE 802.15.4 / ZigBee stack provided in OPNET, and statistics such as end-to-end delay, packet delivery ratio, and battery consumption are collected. The obtained results indicate that Multipath ZDR achieves the largest packet delivery ratio while also providing the shortest end-to-end delay, but at the cost of greater energy consumption. The standard ZigBee AODV shows inferior performance with respect to most metrics when under a stressed network load; however, being a single-path routing protocol, it naturally consumes less energy than other examined protocols. Multipath AODV and DSR perform considerably poorer than Multipath ZDR with regard to all considered metrics as a result of increased inter-path and intra-path interference.