A comparative study of mesh network protocols

Sammanfattning: Mesh networks are highly relevant and interesting today considering all the connected devices that exists. These devices often aim to have low power consumption to be able to be powered by smaller power sources such as solar cells or batteries. The hardware used by mesh networks often has the same purpose, to minimize power consumption. The purpose of this thesis is to provide an increased understanding of mesh networks and some of the various protocols that are available. A number of the mesh network protocols available were examined and evaluated based on the following questions. Could a mesh network be part of a solution to provide an estimation of the location of people in large buildings? And which protocol is best suited for further investigation regarding the previous question? To evaluate the protocols, the following aspects were examined for each protocol: power consumption, latency, range, development environment and security. In the initial phase, information about a number of mesh network protocols was gathered in order to determine which ones were the most interesting to investigate further. Hardware with support for the most interesting protocols was purchased to provide the opportunity to evaluate the issues in the problem formulation. The result of the evaluation showed that the three protocols ZigBee, Thread och SmartMesh were found to be the most interesting during the preliminary investigation are suitable for further investigation.