OpenThread vs. Contiki IPv6 :An Experimental Evaluation

Abstract: Low-power wireless networks based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard are widely used for emerging Internet of Things applications. So far, however, there is no standard network stack for such networks. Different standardization bodies and industry alliances are driving their own standards, which hinders interoperability of IoT devices and hence slows down growth in this sector. Furthermore, it is little known how the different stacks compare in performance. This master’s thesis contributes by conducting a comparison between two network stacks for such low-power networks: the IPv6 network stack of the Contiki operatingsystem and OpenThread. Contiki is a well known operating system tailored for low-power networks and its IPv6 network stack implements various IETF RFCs. OpenThread is an open source implementation of Thread. Thread focuses on low-power networks in the home environment and as recently published by the Thread group, an alliance of companies active in the field. In this master’s thesis we port OpenThread to Contiki and compare both stacks with respect to latency, packet loss, and implementation complexity. For this purpose we conduct experiments focusing on point-to-point traffic between devices in alow-power wireless network. The experiments are performed in a test bed of IoTdevices, which is installed in an office environment. We find that neither stack outperforms the other.