EEET2370/2371 Wireless Sensor Networks Assignment 1

Student Name : Student Number:

Thisara Kularathna S 3373688

Questions 1. Describe the ZigBee network in the sample Application. Describe the device types used in the application. ZigBee technology is a low cost, low power consumption, and short distance wireless communication technology. This can be used in low data rate Wireless Personal Area Networks. In the ZigBee End Device e sample application zigbee is used in three components such as ZigBee coordinator, ZigBee Router. In ZigBee coordinator act as the base for the total Zigbee network. It is compulsory to have a ZigBee coordinator in a ZigBee network. Also this can be used to connect to a separate Zigbee network. ZigBee Router used to run an application on the other hand this functions as an intermediate router which passes data to the other nodes of the network. Zigbee routers are active till the network is established. ZigBee End Device only communicate via it's parent node and cannot be used to relay massages that intend to deliver to other network. This allows end device to save significant amount of battery life. 2. What is a ZigBee Stack and what are the different layers in its architecture? Explain the functions of each layer. The Application layer The ZigBee application layer consists of the APS sub-layer. The APS sub-layer functions include maintaining tables for binding, forwarding messages between bound devices and discovery of other devices operated in same space. , which is the ability to determine which other devices are operating in the personal operating space of a device. The ZDO (Zigbee Device Object) define the role of the device within the network that initiates and/or respond to binding requests which establishes relationships between network devices. The Network Layer Network layer is responsible for starting, join and drop a network. Additionally this layer is used to new device configuration, address assignment, device synchronization, and provision of security and routing. Physical/Data link layer This layer is divided in to two layers such as MAC (Media Access Control) sub-layer and Physical layer which Physical layer responsible for the transmission medium of radio wave and MAC is responsible for addressing and data handling.

3. How does the Network Address Assignment work in the ZigBee Network?

Step 1: Search for a Radio Channel The Coordinator start searching for a suitable radio channel which has least usage while ignoring known used frequencies such as Wi-Fi operating frequency.

Step 2: Assign PAN ID The Coordinator starts the network, assigning a PAN ID (Personal Area Network identifier) to the network. The PAN ID is chosen carefully avoiding PANID conflicts that will occur if the same used frequency have use the same PAN ID sometimes PAN-ID is per-determined. During this stage, the Coordinator also assigns a network address to itself. Usually, this is the address 0x0000.

Step 2: Start the Network Once Coordinator finished setting up the network it starts is Coordinator process that enables it to answer quarries from devices to join the network. 4. Describe the different topologies supported by ZigBee. Explain the Routing Protocol used in a ZigBee Network.

AODV AODV (Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector) is an on-demand routing protocol. It organized routing path when started sending a packet. This protocol only maintain the routing table only for the life time of the network. This effectively reduce routing overhead and make the Zigbee technology have a better performance.

HRP HRP (Enhanced Hierarchical Routing Protocol) is used mainly in ZigBee Mesh Networks. EHRP finds the shortest hierarchical path based on the ZigBee hierarchical addressing scheme. The EHRP provides efficient and reliable routing paths.

5. Study a captured packet and Indicate all the fields in the MAC, Network and APS layers. Try to explain the fields as well. [Note: a capture file will be provided for you to use for this question. Study the last packet in the file.] MAC layer

Sniffed packets in this screen shots indicates the device's association process on view of MAC layer. Network Layer

Association process on view of Network layer

APS Layer

Association process on view of APS layer 6. Explain the self-forming and Self-healing characteristics of ZigBee network.

Self-forming Zigbee forms it devices automatically while keep updating and optimizing best paths in the network. This minimize the manual maintenance of the network.

Self-healing Update connections in the network to avoid routing failures due to interference.

7. What is a Link Quality Indicator and how does it contribute in route selection? Link Quality Indicator (LQI) indicate the quality of the data packet received by the receiver. This measurement is taken by inspecting every packet received at the receiver. LQI is send to networking layer and networking layer make routing decision on path selection based on the LQI level. Higher the LQI better the quality and reliability of the path. LQI is estimated by averaging multiple LQI s received.

8. Explain what is Device Association and Disassociation in a ZigBee Network.

Association After a Zigbee device starts is start scanning active channel or a passive channel scan. This allows a device to locate any coordinator beacon. Then it chooses a suitable PAN. A device already associated will use it PAN for it's association. Unassociated device initiates the association process by sending an associate request command to the coordinator of an existing PAN. Coordinator will send an acknowledgment if the association request delivered properly. Then coordinator determines whether the current sources available on a PAN are sufficient to allow another device to associate. If sufficient resources are available, the coordinator allocates a short address to the device and generate an association response command with association successful with a new address. When there are not sufficient resources are available at the coordinator, it generates a response of association failure.

Disassociation Once coordinator want to remove devices from the PAN it sends a disassociation notification command. As a response Device will send an acknowledgment to the coordinator. Coordinator will remove the associated devices by removing all the references to the PAN whether the acknowledgments are received or not. Device will disassociate itself by removing all references to the PAN.

9. What are the network layer management services? Explain Network discovery and Network formation. Network management services are top level management functions that rely on the MAC management services. The main MAC management services are channel scanning, association (Joining), disassociation (leaving), and polling.

Network Formation Once an application forming a new network it instructs the ZDO to call the network formation function. Only a router with coordinator capability can form a network. Coordinator initiate network formation function it will list all allowed and available channels and decide a channel for the network operation. After it will decides the PAN ID and set the channel in the radio. Then NWK layer call MAC start service to

configure the MAC layer. Once this process is fished a message will be sent to the application. Network Discovery Network discovery service is used to discover the existing networks a channel. This is used when a device is searching for a suitable networks to join, this also can be initiated by user application. On active scanning, once a user broadcast a beacon request on the network, routers or coordinators within their listening range will return a beacon to the user with network information.

Network Join. In network join function, the parties are divided as parent and child. Child side process starts with a network discovery function and initiated when a device is powered up. Network join process started as soon as network discovery is finished and find a potential parent. When a request arrives at the parent, it sends an indicates the network layer, a device is trying to join. Parent lookup its neighbor table to see if the 64-bit IEEE address already exists to check whether the device is already joined. If the device already joint parent issues the previously used network address to it. If the device does not exist parent will add the device to the neighbor table, generate a network address and send it to the device. 10. Explain the Application Support (APS) sublayer. The Application Support Sub layer (APS), lye on Network layer which use to understand applications. This supports to filter out packets received from non-registered endpoints, or profiles that do not match. APS generates end-to-end acknowledgement with retries. Additionally this maintains local binding table, local groups table and local address map.