Effect of Node Mobility and Network Dimension to the Zigbee Routing Method

Both the hierarchical tree routing and the table-driven routing algorithm are available in Zigbee specification. However, the routing selection method is not included in the standard. In this article, we analyzed the effect of the node mobility and the change of the network dimension in Zigbee networks. We used OPNET modeler to simulate the Zigbee networks. The simulation results showed the performances of different routing algorithms in the same conditions. We also simulate the performances of different routing methods with the change of the node mobility and network dimension. We analyzed the reasons and made a conclusion. To the networks, of which, the structure is stable or the change of the structure is not much, we figured out the routing selection strategy based on the scale of the networks. We also find the critical boundary for the different routing method. Tree routing may have better performance when the nodes move less than 3 times on average in 100 seconds, the routing discovery method should be used when nodes move more than 4 times.