Z-Monitor: Monitoring and analyzing IEEE 802.15.4-based Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Monitoring of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is a fundamental task to track the network behavior and measure its performance in real-world deployments. In this paper, we present Z-Monitor, a monitoring and a protocol analyzer solution to control and debug IEEE 802.15.4-compliant Low Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (LoWPANs). Z-Monitor does not only support the analysis of well-known ZigBee, 6L0WPAN and RPL protocols, but is also designed to be modular and easily extensible for adding new protocols. The motivation behind the design and implementation of Z- Monitor is the fact that commercially-available products for monitoring and testing IEEE 802.15.4-compliant LoWPANs are mainly too expensive, and typically require special sniffing hardware. Z-Monitor represents a free and extensible solution, does not require special sniffing hardware, and provides comparable services to proprietary and commercial products. We also share our experimental study results that demonstrate the effectiveness of Z-Monitor in meeting its objectives.