Selection of Wireless Communication Technologies for Embedded Devices using Multi-criteria Approach and Expert Opinion

Abstract

Emerging research has shown the significance of communication technologies in the development of embedded systems and devices. Since there are various communication technologies with varying advantages and disadvantages in embedded systems, decision makers in identifying the best alternative can be prejudiced by various features. Hence, making the selection of the most suitable wireless communication technology a multi-criteria problem. To rank the common wireless communication technologies relevant to the development of embedded systems, this paper presents a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach for analyzing experts opinion on the most preferred wireless communication technologies for embedded devices. To accommodate the subjective nature of experts’ responses, a Fuzzy-TOPSIS MCDM approach is proposed for the ranking wireless communication technologies that can be adopted in the development of embedded systems. Based on the aggregation of responses from experts, the results show that the most preferred wireless communication alternative for embedded application is Wi-Fi with a closeness coefficient (𝐶𝐶𝑖) of 0.52, while the least preferred alternative is Long-Term Evolution (LTE) with a (𝐶𝐶𝑖) 0.32.