Effect on Range of Zigbee Network Due to Height of Coordinator and End Nodes

Zigbee network is one of the most popular low power, low data rate, short range networks. It is very commonly used in smart home, home automation, HVAC control, intelligent buildings and commercial establishments. This paper investigates the effect on the range of a Zigbee network by varying the deployment height of sensors and actuator. Thereafter we investigate the change in coverage area on changing the deployment height of coordinator. The conclusions of this investigation can prove to be highly contributory to commercial deployments. This is due to the fact that the results depicts a directly proportional relationship between mounting height of end node and its maximum connectivity range from coordinator. The study also reveals difference in behavior of sensor as compared to actuator with respect to the mounting height of coordinator.