A Systematic Benchmarking of Wireless Communication Protocols for IoT Applications: Performance Evaluation and Suitability Mapping
Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly growing technology that has created an increasing need for an efficient, scalable, and reliable wireless communication protocol. Each protocol has its own set of strengths and weaknesses and is not necessarily appropriate for every scenario, as demands on them may differ such as ultra-low latency, wide range and energy efficiency. This review evaluates Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Zigbee, LoRaWAN, NB-IoT and 5G based on six technical features: latency, data rate, energy efficiency, range, scalability and interoperability. Our results indicate that 5G can offer ultra-low latency (<1 ms) and high data rates (up to 20 Gbps), but requires substantial energy consumption. In contrast, LoRaWAN has long range (up to 15 km) and low latency (<100 ms), however they are low energy efficient. This study brings together and summarizes 67 peer-reviewed papers, in a comparative matrix, to assess the performance of protocols. The research gaps were pointed out, protocol strengths were outlined and future directions for context-aware protocol selection were suggested so that the system architect can help in heterogeneous environments.
Download Paper