TinyOS-Based WSN Performance: Default Active Message Layer vs. TKN15.4

The applications aimed at monitoring and controlling smart homes and buildings, health, industrial environments, traffic, energy consumption, resources, and so on, are being increasingly deployed due to the advantages they provide, increasing efficiency and decreasing costs. In this context Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) have become a leading solution providing the appropriate mean to get and collect data and deliver it for their processing. Sensor nodes in a WSN have resource constraints, presenting low processing power and, in some cases, restrictions in power consumption. Resources availability constraints force researchers and engineers to develop proper Operating Systems (OS) aimed at low-power wireless devices, and one of the most important and in active use is the TinyOS. This paper describes an experimental analysis and evaluation which investigates relevant features and evaluates the performance (throughput, network delay, success rate, and energy consumption) of WSN under the constraint of using the low-power-consumption-aimed chosen operating system in an harsh outdoor industrial environment for with two different protocols: Active Message (AM) layer protocol and the fully 802.15.4 compliant protocol stack TKN15.4. Based on the results we conclude that TKN15.4 is better in energy consumption and success rate. On the other hand, AM protocol allows running multiple services using the same radio, but at the cost of an excessive energy consumption.