Q15Internet of Things
Question
4 marks
Explain the 6LoWPAN protocol stack and its significance in IoT.
Answer
6LoWPAN enables IPv6 packets to be sent over IEEE 802.15.4 based networks.
6LoWPAN stands for IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks. It acts as an adaptation layer that compresses IPv6 headers to fit into the small frame sizes of IEEE 802.15.4 standard (used by Zigbee).
Its significance lies in bringing IP connectivity directly to the smallest, low-power IoT devices, allowing them to communicate natively with the internet without complex protocol translation gateways.