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Wireless // Multiprotocol Connectivity // Mesh Performance Learning Center

Benchmarking Bluetooth Mesh, Thread, and Zigbee Network Performance

Bluetooth mesh , Thread, and Zigbee are popular mesh networking standards used to add wireless connectivity to building and home automation products. Silicon Labs conducted mesh network performance testing to help developers better understand difficult-to-predict wireless behavior and make more informed choices when designing products for the IoT.

Webinar: Benchmarking Bluetooth Mesh, Thread, and Zigbee Network Performance

Learn about performance results and additional criteria for selecting the appropriate mesh networking technology.

Watch Now

Examining Mesh Networking Technology

Networking performance characteristics such as throughput, latency and the impact of network size on scalability and reliability are important factors to consider. Additional factors such as technologies used in different ecosystems, gateway interfaces and cloud connectivity should also be factored in when making a technology selection.

  Bluetooth Mesh Thread Zigbee
Market Focus Lighting and Home Automation Commercial/Industrial Home Automation, Lighting, Metering
Maturity Established 2017
Established 2015 Established 2003
Application Layer
Native Mesh Model Flexibile support for IP-based application layers like  dotdot, OCF and Nest Weave Comprehensive Zigbee Cluster Library (ZCL)
IPv6
No Yes No
Cloud Connectivity
Smartphone (Temporary) Gateway Border Router Gateway Gateway
Ecosystems
None Nest Amazon, IKEA, Phillips HUE, Samsung SmartThings, Lowes Iris, Wink, Cox, Rogers, Deutsch Telekom (Qivicon) and others
Routing
Managed Flooding Full Routing Full Routing
Additional Notes
Beaconing, Direct Phone Connectivity — Most Mature

Whitepaper: Selecting the Appropriate Wireless Mesh Networking Technology

Examine the key factors such as technical strengths, maturity in the marketplace and established deployments to determine the appropriate technology for your needs.

Learn More

Comparing The Performance of Mesh Networking Standards

Benchmark Requirements

  • Utilize real-world environment with varying Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Zigbee network activity
  • Synchronize time stamps across all nodes in the network with Ethernet backchannel and packet tracing
  • Measure performance across varying throughput and latency configurations
  • Correlate energy measurements with wireless traffic for improved system characterization

Results Overview

  • Thread, Zigbee, and Bluetooth mesh perform similarly in small networks under small payloads
  • Thread and Zigbee outperform Bluetooth mesh when payload and throughput needs increase
  • Latency increases for all three as network size grows, but Bluetooth mesh experiences the largest increase
  • Selecting your IoT wireless connectivity solution should include additional criteria such as expected ecosystems and power consumption requirements
  • For large Bluetooth mesh networks relay optimization can be used to optimize performance
  • Bluetooth mesh works best when short messages (<=11B) are used especially for multicast messages


Testing Network Performance

Tests were conducted using Silicon Labs’ Wireless Gecko SoC platform capable of running Bluetooth Mesh, Thread, Zigbee, and Proprietary protocols. Silicon Labs Bluetooth Mesh, Thread, and Zigbee software stacks were utilized. The test environment was a commercial office building with active Wi-Fi and Zigbee networks in range. Wireless test clusters were deployed in hallways, meeting rooms, offices, and open areas.



Benchmarking Results

×

Throughput for 100-Byte Payload

  • Typical networks consist of two to three hops
  • Throughput varies based on number of hops
  • Protocol performance becomes similar as number of hops increase
  • Bluetooth mesh small packet payload results in reduced throughput


Latency over Four Hops

  • All protocols provide similar latency for very small payloads
  • Thread fragmentation (6LowPAN) achieves the best efficiency and latency performance as payload size increases
  • Zigbee has good efficiency but some application layer fragmentation
  • Bluetooth mesh latency degrades as payload size increases due to small packet size and resulting segmentation
×


×

Small Network with Small Payload

  • All three peak below 50 milliseconds (ms)
  • All spread up to 90 ms, well under the market target of 200 ms
  • Multicast for all protocols provides very high reliability


Small Network with Moderate Payload

  • Thread performs the best with latency up to 100 milliseconds (ms)
  • Zigbee performs well – most packets received with 80 ms latency, spreading up to 130 ms
  • Bluetooth mesh latency has the greatest variation, 20 to 200 ms
×


×

Large Network with Small Payload

  • Thread performs best with latency up to 100 ms
  • Zigbee performs well – most packets received with 80 ms latency, spreading up to 130 ms
  • Bluetooth mesh latency peaks at 60 ms, spreading past 250 ms
  • All 192 nodes were Bluetooth mesh relays and no relay optimization was used


Large Network with Moderate Payload

  • Thread performs the best with latency spreading up to 100 ms
  • Zigbee performs well – most packets received with 80 ms latency, spreading up to 130 ms
  • Bluetooth mesh latency peaks at 60 ms, spreading past 250 ms
  • All 192 nodes were Bluetooth mesh relays and no relay optimization was used
×


Application Note

Bluetooth Mesh Network Performance

Read More

Application Note

Thread Network Performance

Read More

Application Note

Zigbee Network Performance

Read More

Application Note

Mesh Network Performance Comparison

Read More

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