Implementation of Zigbee-Based and ISM-Based Wireless Sensor and Actuator Network With Throughput, Power and Cost Comparisons

Wireless sensor and actuator networks have expanding applications which requires better throughput, power efficiency and cost effectiveness. This paper intends to contribute to the growing pool of knowledge on WSAN especially in the design for novel applications such as image or video over WSANs, and solar energy and RF energy harvesting for the WSAN nodes. Two basic scalable wireless sensor and actuator networks were implemented and characterized in terms of throughput and power consumption. The two WSANs are the Zigbee-based WSAN which is based on the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol, and the ISM-based Zigbee which makes use of the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) radio bands. The star topology was used for both WSAN implementations.