Each sensor node fires packets toward the gateway. In star mode every
packet travels the node’s full distance in one radio hop. In mesh mode
packets relay through an intermediate node first, shortening each individual hop
at the cost of extra processing delay. A hop's chance of being dropped grows once
its length exceeds the configured radio range.
P_loss(d) = clamp((d − R) / (0.5·R), 0.03, 0.9)
latency = Σ hop_travel_time + n_hops · t_relay
- Node count — number of active sensors transmitting into the network.
- Packet rate — average packets generated per second, network-wide.
- Radio range R — the sphere around the gateway inside which a hop is reliable; drawn as the translucent shell.
- Star vs mesh — star is simpler and lower-latency when nodes are close; mesh trades latency for reliability by shortening long hops.
This mirrors real IoT deployments: LoRaWAN and Zigbee networks make exactly
this star-vs-mesh trade-off depending on site geometry and battery budget.