This paper presents a wireless mesh network testbed based on ESP8266 devices using
painlessMesh library. It evaluates its feasibility and potential effectiveness as a solution to monitor
perishable goods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, which are often stored and transported inside
refrigerated containers. Performance testing experiments with different numbers of nodes and traffic
loads and different message payload sizes are conducted under unicast transmission. The impact on
network performance is evaluated in terms of delivery ratio and delivery delay, which, consequently,
affect the energy consumption and, hence, network lifetime. The results of this investigation are
an important contribution to help researchers to propose mechanisms, schemes, and protocols to
improve performance in such challenging networks.
Keywords: wireless mesh networks; testbed; performance assessment; painlessMesh; ESP8266