Optimizing Packet Size for Enhanced Performance in Wireless Sensor Networks for Environmental Monitoring Applications

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are widely used in environmental monitoring applications (EMAs) for water quality, air quality, and structural health monitoring. However, the performance of WSNs in EMAs depends on various network parameters such as packet size, data rate, and bit error rate. Packet size affects network reliability, which is evident in performance metrics, such as energy consumption, delay, and throughput. In this study, we investigated a method used to measure the effect of packet size on the performance of an IEEE 802.11 network in typical EMAs. The NS-3 network simulator compares the packet sizes (32, 64, 128, 512, and 1024 bytes) for different network densities (100, 120, 140, 160, 180, and 200 nodes, respectively) in a 100 × 100 m square area. This paper provides a comprehensive performance analysis of WSN applications for different node densities for performance metrics such as energy consumption, latency, and packet delivery ratios. The study also found intermediate packet sizes of 64 and 128 bytes, proving improved network performance for the chosen performance metrics. The results were validated against results from related studies on WSN implementation in smart grids and other underwater communications. We report that the optimum average end-to-end delay achieved in our simulations was 10.88 s for the 128-byte packet size, whereas the optimum packet delivery ratio was 0.178 for the 64-byte channel. The remaining energy on the channel was 27.9% for 64 bytes, which is better than other channels with 25% energy remaining.