Comparison of 802.11ah, BLE and 802.15.4 for a Home Automation Use Case

Understanding the main short-range wireless technologies operating in unlicensed bands is an important step before deploying Internet of Things (IoT) applications. In this study, we have selected IEEE 802.11ah, Bluetooth Low Energy and IEEE 802.15.4 for performance comparison in terms of delay, service ratio, traffic loss, activity factor and battery lifetime in a home automation scenario. Also, a low overhead protocol stack suitable for IoT applications is considered. The analysis takes into account heterogeneous devices and different traffic loads. The results show advantages and disadvantages with respect to the different performance indicators with generally satisfactory behavior for the three technologies. Among them, BLE is recognized as the most suitable candidate technology for the home automation domain.