Isn IP too big for low-bandwidth, 802.15.4 networks?
Absolutely not. Resource conservation is a key consideration in low-power wireless sensor applications. The resources that matter to achieving deployment ubiquity, long-lived power autonomy, and cost effective devices include: low protocol overhead in bandwidth on the radio, low program memory requirements, low data memory requirements, and low power usage through intermittent and often infrequent operation. On all these dimensions, 6LoWPAN achieves resource efficiencies comparable to those of alternate non-IP based architectures, while offering the significant benefits of familiar operating paradigms and end-to-end application enablement with a huge range of IP-based devices, including devices located outside 802.15.4 mesh networks.
