What's the difference between uIP, lwIP and LowPAN?

Question

I just started to work on a wireless sensor network project and encounter these three terms: uIP, lwIP, 6LoWPAN. Since I'm new to this area, could anyone please explain the differences between these three terms?

Thanks!

Answer 1

uIP and lwIP are two widely used open source TCP/IP stacks, very useful when providing networking on resource constrained embedded devices.

6LoWPAN is a IETF working group that defined IPv6 networking for wireless sensors using IEEE 802.15.4 radios.

uIP has been integrated to the Contiki OS, which is 6LoWPAN capable, with ports written for the most common radios.

lwIP is IPv6 compatible, and although some 6LoWPAn protocols may be implemented in it, they are not available (and maybe it is not the project's maintainers goal), so lwIP is most used for traditional Ethernet and wi-fi networking.