Bluetooth or 802.15.4 technologies to optimise lifetime of wireless sensor networks: Numerical comparison under a common framework

This paper aims at comparing through simulations the network lifetime of a wireless sensor network using Bluetooth-enabled or IEEE 802.15.4 compliant devices. The evaluation is performed under a common reference framework, namely the EMORANS scenario for wireless sensor networks. Since the two enabling technologies rely on different MAC paradigms, suitable definition of the performance metrics is needed, in order to make the comparison meaningful. Thus, the paper has also a methodological objective. In particular, three different definitions of network lifetime are introduced, and a comparison of performance obtained by applying the different definitions is provided. Then, the comparison between the two standards is introduced: it is shown that there are no orders of magnitude of difference in network lifetime when the two technologies are used and the choice of the technology depends on the application requirements.