Integrating IPHC and SCHC with DTLS: A Comparative Study of Simulation and Testbed-Based IoT Networks

Integrating secure communication protocols in constrained IoT networks is challenging due to limitations in processing power, memory, and energy. This study evaluates the performance of a layered protocol stack combining IPv6 Header Compression (IPHC), Static Context Header Compression (SCHC), and Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS), under both simulation (using COOJA) and real-world testbed (using CC2538-based hardware) environments. Three core performance metrics were analyzed: energy consumption, packet delivery ratio (PDR), and DTLS handshake latency. The simulation results, reflecting idealized conditions with no radio interference or timing variability, reported consistently high performance across all metrics. In contrast, real-world deployments experienced up to 30% higher energy usage, 20% lower PDR, and 60% increased handshake latency, due to radio collisions, asynchronous scheduling, and processing constraints. Rather than attributing these differences solely to simulation limitations, this work advocates for enhancing simulation fidelity, especially at the MAC and physical layers to better reflect real-world behavior. These findings highlight the importance of validating protocol stacks in both environments, and reinforce the value of improving simulation models for accurate, scalable, and secure IoT protocol design.