IP in wireless sensor networks Issues and lessons learnt

This paper addresses the issue of IP in wireless sensor networks, comparing the use of IPv4 and IPv6. Although a considerable number of studies on wireless sensor networks exist, most of them are based on simulation only. This is not the case of the current paper. In order to validate and complement the simulation studies, this paper presents the construction, deployment and evaluation of a real testbed for the study of IP in Wireless Sensor Networks. The testbed is based on Contiki over embedded sensor boards nodes. The results show that the impact of IPv6 is negligible when compared with IPv4, and that IPv6 may even be beneficial due to its higher functionality and to the simpler composition of its headers.