Analysis of a Zigbee Mesh Network Based on the
IEEE 802.15.4 Standard for the
Operation of a Drone
Andrés Pazmiño
Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas-ESPE
Sangolquí, Ecuador
ampazmino2@espe.edu.ec
Abstract— This research develops a network of mesh topology
in order to increase range in the coverage area through the use of
secondary and redundant links. In the application the Xbee S2
Wire, which has embedded the ZigBee protocol, is used to send a
signal generated in an RF control to the controller card CC3D for
the handling of a DRON. Protocol checking is performed by the
API frame, in which a subframe containing the RF control
information is embedded, which is verified by a process in the
receiver. In order to mitigate the effect of the inverse square law,
several tests with different network configurations are performed
on two types of soils (grass and cement) by checking the quality
parameter LQI generated by the X-CTU program of the similar
Xbee modules To the RSSI parameter (signal strength indicator
received).
Keywords-ZigBee; LQI, DRON, API frame, Coverage area.
I. INTRODUCTION
The Latin American countries, being located in the
Cordillera de los Andes, present a very irregular geography,
making difficult or denying the access to telecommunications
services to certain points of the country [1], making the
deployment of any type of communication by a wired way too
costly and prolonging development time. There is also no
exception of damage to existing infrastructures due to natural
disasters such as floods, fires, volcanic eruptions, etc. In
addition to these high risk plights, dangerous situations can
arise in daily life such as transit accidents, broken pipes,
effects caused by deforestation, theft of equipment and
stations, etc. These kinds of situations requires an immediate
response time in order to generate a containment of the
problem.
The use of DRONES for the year 2015 has had an
exponential growth according to the General Directorate of
Civil Aviation of Ecuador, reason for which has been
generated a regulation for the operation of systems of aircraft
piloted to distance (RPAS) [2]. Due to the great reception of
the DRONES, they are being included in different sectors such
as: commercial, tourist, scientific and security [3].
In order to solve the disadvantage of energy
consumption by increasing the distance, technologies have
been created that allow the digital broadcasting of low energy
consumption, which can form a network topology in mesh of
easy integration, known as ZigBee, which is a the specification
of A set of high-level wireless communication protocols based
on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. ZigBee technology allows for
greater coverage by attaching more nodes to the network at a
very low cost compared to a higher power RF equipment, and
allows a more versatile deployment due to its reduced size and
the strong security of the standard [4] [5] [6].
II. STATE OF ART
Sensor networks and robots have evolved rapidly to
generate a symbiosis between these two fields. Data collection
from sensors can be a time-consuming task, but it is a process
that can be automated through wireless communication
between sensors. This is described in [7] [8], where it is
proposed to take advantage of wireless sensor networks in the
remote manipulation environment that can send signals at far
distances using mesh technology, transferring data wirelessly
to low power consumption. Two nodes are used, the first to
sense temperature using an Arduino and a Xbee wireless
communication module based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard,
while the second one located in the robot has a FPGA board as
a processing unit connected to a module Xbee with Rs-232 to
control positioning. A simple custom package was designed to
maintain uniformity while collecting sensor data while the
robot is in motion, thus avoiding problems at the remote
terminal. The ZigBee coordinator is connected to a remote
terminal through a USB port where the GUI is executed to
monitor the sensor readings and the position of the robot.
In [9] [10] is exposed a remotely controlled robot capable
of examining disaster situations or acting as a security
countermeasure. It employs a stationary network of nodes with
passive infrared sensors interconnected through a multi-hop
ZigBee network. Sensors are sensitive to movement and can
locate survivors or intruders depending on the situation.
In the works [11] [12] show a remote control system
designed and implemented to position a mobile robot. The
system consists of the robot, the PC as a positioning controller,
the camera as a robot sensor and the wireless communication
device based on ZigBee. The developed image processing
algorithms (Matlab) determine the position and orientation of
the robot. Based on these data, the implemented system
controls the position of the robot. The control signals are sent
through the wireless communication modules. The
experimental results confirm the robustness and effectiveness
of the proposed control system.
The problem with radio signals for real-time applications
is their robustness. In the papers [13] [14] the propagation of
radio waves in interiors is studied using devices of low power
taking advantage of the specifications of ZigBee and
Bluetooth. Results of experiments with two robots equipped
with radio signal devices enabled to monitor and locate a target
autonomously in an interior corridor are presented. It is shown
that simulated RSSI measurements using existing signal
models and experimentally obtained RSSI measurements
closely coincide, suggesting that for robotic applications
requiring predicted RSSI, low power radio signal devices are a
viable option.
III. DESING AND IMPLEMENTATION
A. Design of the DRON control interface
The control interface of the DRON is shown in Fig. 1, it is
composed of three modules: wireless TX, wireless RX and
control, defined by the API for ZigBee.
Figure 1. Design of the DRON control interface
a) Wireless TX Module
The design of the module consists of a FLYSKY FS-i6
aeromodelling control, a FLYSKY FS-iA6 radio frequency
receiver, Xbee S2 and an Arduino card. The control signals are
received by the FS-iA6 device and processed by the Arduino
card to send the information generated by the Xbee S2.
b) Wireless RX Module
The module design consists of an Xbee S2 and an Arduino.
The information sent from the wireless Rx module arrives at
the Xbee S2, to be processed by the Arduino card and generate
the control signals that are sent to the control module.
c) Control Module
The module design consists of a CC3D flight control card.
The signals generated by the wireless module Rx are
processed by the CC3D and this commands the motors when
and at what speed to rotate.
B. XBee Modules
There are three functions that an XBee module can fulfill
(Coordinator, Router and Final Device), for the configuration
of a ZigBee network, there must be a coordinating node and a
router node or final device node. In the project, 4 devices are
configured and can be increased if desired. The configuration
of the 4 devices mentioned above is shown in Fig. 2. The
Communication is established between the devices of the
same PANID (unique identifier of the area network personal)
the coordinator node is hardly turned on and then the router
nodes.
Figure 2. XBee Modules Attachments
C. API communication mode
The API mode refers to the interface that uses (application
programming interface), whose main characteristic is to allow
its programming through an application. API is a set of
standards - interfaces that make it possible the interaction of
one program with another allowing efficient communication
between electronic devices since this mode was not designed
to interact directly with the human as the AT transparent mode.
The API mode also manages its own protocol which is the
XBee API Protocol, which is nothing more than a series of
headers appended to the information to be sent.
 The basic structure of the API plot can perform different
functions, hence the need to assign a hexadecimal number in
the Frame Type field that is located in the Frame Information
field.
D. Arduino IDE Applications
For the deployment of the network there are two sketches
developed for Arduino. For the Arduino card in the radio
frequency receiver, it is necessary to verify the information
that the radio frequency module sends to the Arduino. An
oscilloscope verifies that the signal is a square wave with
frequency of 50 Hz normally used in signals to move servos.
Due to this it was necessary to know how many microseconds
existed between the rising and falling edge of the four signals
used for the communication between the DRON and the radio
frequency control, this is achieved with the pulseIn () function,
the range of values obtained from each of the signals is
between 1000 microseconds to 2000 microseconds. Once the
duration of the pulse in microseconds of the four signals has
been obtained, a subframe "lch1ich2ich3ich4p" is constructed
as shown in table 1, ch being the channel of each signal.
TABLE I. Structure of the Subframe
a.
Subframe constructed
For the opposite part of the wireless communication is
carried out the verification arriving the complete subframe and
in the order that it must be, since each channel controls a
specific engine and if they are interchanged between them
collapses the system, because each engine is predefined to
allow movement in the different axes (y, x, z). In order to
avoid this, the creation of the subframe that is embedded in the
API frame that the XBee handles is defined, the method that
uses the algorithm to detect if the subframe is complete and in
order is through the function findUntil (), this function revises
the Data that arrives at its serial port and analyzes it according
to the arguments that are entered, in this case the arguments
are "l" and "p" this means to look in the serial port a match of
"l" and from that character Look for the character "p", once
found the two all the content is admitted, otherwise it is
discarded and it looks for the two characters.
For the accepted data, it must be discriminated that it is a
number and that it is a character, with the function
Serial.parseInt (), this function analyzes all the information
that passes finUntil () discriminating it to later with the library
of Arduino Servo to send to the Motors a PWM signal in
microseconds of 50 Hz.
E. Design and configuration of the network ZigBee Mesh
The network design is based on the principle of scalability,
to allow a growth of the network if necessary, so that the final
device node that was on the DRON is removed from the
network, Turning it into a router node. By definition the final
device node has two essential differences that are: a) can enter
sleep mode b) can not route packets, something that does not
allow scalability, hence the main reason to turn it into a router
node. Taking into account that a final device node can enter
sleep mode, the router node should also be able to access this
mode in order to supply this node in a suitable way, so, if one
enters the configuration profile of the router node, You can see
that by default, sleep mode is disabled, but you can activate it
in one of the 5 allowed modes.
Figure 3. Network Design
To generate the communication in the network, three XBee
modules are configured as routers nodes and one as a
coordinating node as shown in Fig 3. Each of them has a
unique network address and MAC address. The routers with
drop-node position are those that can be varied according to the
configuration of the mesh topology at the time of deployment
IV. SYSTEM EVALUATION
A. Development of test protocol
The variables that have a great impact on the performance
of the DRON are the reach generated by the XBee modules
with the ZigBee network and the autonomy of the equipments
provided by the batteries. Given the communication
characteristic that is used (real time), high signal strength
parameters must be handled to avoid large delays in the signal
being sent. DIGI the manufacturer of the modules XBee
presents a description of the minimum and maximum
parameters to classify a signal as very strong, strong, moderate
and weak as shown in table 2; Based on a parameter called
LQI (Link Quality Indication), which is an integer between
256 and 0.
TABLE II. Signal Quality Parameters

b.
Quality of the signal
B. Pilot Tests
For the pilot tests, 4 different positions on grass and cement
are used, in which the quality of the signal in each of them is
verified. In Fig. 4 it is possible to observe 3 different colors of
lines representing:
 _____: Connection greater than 195 LQI
 ……...: Disconnection
 --------: Connection less than 195 LQI
Figure 4. Distribution of Test Nodes
NC: Node Coordinator, NRD: Node Router Disconnect, NDO: Dron Node,
NRB: Base Router Node
For the first positioning of nodes as shown in figure 4a
presents a scenario with redundancy, where a triangle is
formed with the nodes NRD, NRB and NC separated between
them 30m and the node NDO in the center of the triangle.
Figure 5. Redundancy Test
a) Cemen b) Grass
As can be seen in Fig. 5a and Fig. 5b all the links present
values of minimum LQI (195), both in grass and cement, thus
allowing the viability of these links for the transmission of
information between the nodes and creating redundant routes.
In this scene realized in grass it is seen in Fig. 5b - sample
number 14 a sudden reduction of the quality of the signal, this
happens due to a gust of wind that impacts to the nodes
affecting its performance.
The second node positioning shown in Figure 4b presents a
redundant scenario with disconnection, where a triangle is
formed with the NRD, NRB and NC nodes separated between
them 30m and the NDO node in the center of the triangle. The
particularity of this scenario is the disconnection of the NRD
node, to observe how the redundant links maintain the
connection, as shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 for cement and grass
respectively.
Figure 6. Redundancy test with Cement Disconnection
Figure 7. Redundancy Test with Grass Disconnection
In Fig. 6a and Fig. 7a the disconnection moment can be
seen, in sample number 7 and number 14 a connection is
generated again, but in Fig. 6b and Fig. 7b does not change
state in sample number 7, this is due to persistent values in the
network when trying to generate a reconnection. A clear
example of persistent values and reconnection attempts is
observed in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 respectively.
For the third node positioning presented in Fig. 4c shows a
scenario without redundancy and disconnection, where the
four nodes form a diamond, separated between them 30m in
which the signal between the node NDO and NRB degrades
below the parameters LQI allowed
.
Figure 9. Redundancy with Cement Disconnection
Figure 10. Redundancy with Grass Disconnection
In Fig. 9b and Fig. 10b it is observed that the link between
the NDO and NRB node drops to 150 LQI, which indicates
that the link is not suitable for transporting the information
that is handled but the other links exceed the 195 LQI,
allowing transport of the information. In these graphs, the
moment of disconnection is also observed in case of Figure 9a
occurs in sample number 11 and is re-connected in number 20,
in this time in Fig. 9b in sample number 11 is disconnected but
in the number 12 is again switched on again to be
disconnected in sample number 13, and thus flashes to sample
number 20.
This is due to persistent values in the network when
attempting to generate a connection until it is achieved in
sample number 20 This phenomenon is also shown in Fig. 10.
Finally we have the positioning as shown in Fig. 4d for the
maximum range scenario, in this scenario each of the nodes
are separated 30m along a straight line.
Figure 11. Maximum Reach Cement
Figure 12. Maximum Reach Grass
In this scenario we use the results of the NDO node to be
found at one end and the NRD node to be found between the
ends. What is observed in this scenario is that the node of the
NDO end maintains two links greater than 195 LQI with the
node NRD (adjacent) and NC (next jump) in cement as shown
in figure 11, whereas in grass only maintains a link Greater
than 195 LQI with the NRD (adjacent) node as shown in Fig.
12a.
With respect to the NRD node it maintains a greater
connection to 195 LQI with all its links due to its more central
position in the distribution of the nodes, as shown in Fig. 11b
and Fig. 12b.
V. CONCLUSIONS
In test scenarios designed to measure the maximum range
between the coordinating node and a router node, it was
determined that this value does not exceed 30 meters, this type
of scheme affects the performance of the services that the
DRON can offer in an area Of coverage compared to a mesh
network, because the quality parameter (LQI) is affected at the
nominal value; Being less than the preset minimum (195 LQI)
for a connection.
 When implementing the network through mesh architecture
in linear configuration, the length of coverage can be extended
to 90 meters, without losing the minimum quality parameters
(LQI) thus eliminating the effect of the law of inverse square.
The real-time connection is checked: using the LibrePilot
software, which allows real-time visualization as well as
monitoring the signals between the DRON control and the
CC3D card in charge of DRON engine management; And, by
means of the serial terminals connected to the Arduino cards,
performing a subframe check, structured: by a start character
"l", a chx data channel for each of the four channels and
separators between them "I" and an end character of subframe
"p"; designed to check the connection on the receiver.
Due to the processing limitations of the Arduino One card,
the API frame can not be formed and the sample of the signal
sent by the DRON control can be sampled; to solve it, only the
control signal is sampled by converting it to type "string",
forming the receiver subframe of the receiver and configuring
a node in format AT commands that performs the conversion
of this subframe to API format, of the card.
Due to climatic and geographic effects, there is a decrease
in LQI, due to wind gusts that were recorded in the grid
redundancy test scenario, where values fluctuated between
255 and 194 LQI, presenting problems to support a Real-time
connection at a distance greater than 30 meters.
When the disconnection of a node within the network
occurs, the remaining nodes register false positives in their
samples, giving intervals of fictitious connectivity, this is due
to the search for reconnection with the disconnected node.
To integrate the DRON into the ZigBee mesh network, the
RX receiver module, the peripheral module of the CC3D card,
is replaced, which allows connection to the RF-frequency knob
FS-i6 of the DRON; By a ZigBee module and an Arduino Uno
card which process the connection parameters of the designed
network
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