An Overview and Assessment of Wireless Technologies and Co- existence of ZigBee, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Devices

AbstractWi-Fi, ZigBee and Bluetooth wireless communication systems utilize the Industrial Scientific and Medical-(ISM) Band, which results in a high mutual interference between these technologies since they all these systems operate at the same or very close frequency bands. The interference problem increases with an in-device Co-existence (technologies existing on same device). This is primarily due to the characteristics of each technology such as access mechanism, frame structure, peak transmit power and frequency of operation. This work describes the interference between the Wi-Fi mostly as an aggressor on Bluetooth and ZigBee wireless networks. So the experimental analysis of the coexistence of these three technologies in an assumed home environment is studied especially when ZigBee is enabled for a Home Automation Network where there could be close proximity of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices such as PDAs and mobile phones. The obtained result shows that there is severe degradation on ZigBee and Bluetooth packet transmission of packets as well as re-transmission of ZigBee packets when Wi-Fi is operating

Survey of Spectrum Sharing for Inter-Technology Coexistence

Increasing capacity demands in emerging wireless technologies are expected to be met by network densification and spectrum bands open to multiple technologies. These will, in turn, increase the level of interference and also result in more complex inter-technology interactions, which will need to be managed through spectrum sharing mechanisms. Consequently, novel spectrum sharing mechanisms should be designed to allow spectrum access for multiple technologies, while efficiently utilizing the spectrum resources overall. Importantly, it is not trivial to design such efficient mechanisms, not only due to technical aspects, but also due to regulatory and business model constraints. In this survey we address spectrum sharing mechanisms for wireless inter-technology coexistence by means of a technology circle that incorporates in a unified, system-level view the technical and non-technical aspects. We thus systematically explore the spectrum sharing design space consisting of parameters at different layers. Using this framework, we present a literature review on inter-technology coexistence with a focus on wireless technologies with equal spectrum access rights, i.e. (i) primary/primary, (ii) secondary/secondary, and (iii) technologies operating in a spectrum commons. Moreover, we reflect on our literature review to identify possible spectrum sharing design solutions and performance evaluation approaches useful for future coexistence cases. Finally, we discuss spectrum sharing design challenges and suggest future research directions

Wireless body sensor networks for health-monitoring applications

This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in Physiological Measurement. The publisher is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0967-3334/29/11/R01

Wireless Technologies for IoT in Smart Cities

[EN] As cities continue to grow, numerous initiatives for Smart Cities are being conducted. The concept of Smart City encompasses several concepts being governance, economy, management, infrastructure, technology and people. This means that a Smart City can have different communication needs. Wireless technologies such as WiFi, ZigBee, Bluetooth, WiMax, 4G or LTE (Long Term Evolution) have presented themselves as solutions to the communication needs of Smart City initiatives. However, as most of them employ unlicensed bands, interference and coexistence problems are increasing. In this paper, the wireless technologies available nowadays for IoT (Internet of Things) in Smart Cities are presented. Our contribution is a review of wireless technologies, their comparison and the problems that difficult coexistence among them. In order to do so, the characteristics and adequacy of wireless technologies to each domain are considered. The problems derived of over-crowded unlicensed spectrum and coexistence difficulties among each technology are discussed as well. Finally, power consumption concerns are addressed.García-García, L.; Jimenez, JM.; Abdullah, MTA.; Lloret, J. (2018). Wireless Technologies for IoT in Smart Cities. Network Protocols and Algorithms. 10(1):23-64. doi:10.5296/npa.v10i1.12798S236410

Spectrum Sharing and Interference in Smart Homes

Internet of Things networks using Zigbee are very popular in smart homes. However, Zigbee networks are vulnerable to the interference of Wi-Fi networks because they share the same 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical radio frequency band. Studies have shown that weaker Zigbee signals might be significantly interfered by stronger Wi-Fi signals. This type of interference may cause severe problems when these types of networks coexist in an indoor environment such as in a smart home. In this thesis, the performance of a Zigbee network with and without the presence of a Wi-Fi network has been evaluated in an apartment-based indoor environment mimicking a smart home. The experimental results are obtained and analyzed in terms of received signal strength indicator, packet delay, packet drop rate, and loopback throughput by changing operating channels, distances between Zigbee and Wi-Fi devices, transmission intervals of Zigbee packets, Zigbee transmit power, and Zigbee packet lengths

Interference mitigation strategy design and applications for wireless sensor networks

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.4 standard presents a very useful technology for implementing low-cost, low-power, wireless sensor networks. Its main focus, which is to applications requiring simple wireless connectivity with relaxed throughout and latency requirements, makes it suitable for connecting devices that have not been networked, such as industrial and control instrumentation equipments, agricultural equipments, vehicular equipments, and home appliances. Its usage of the license-free 2.4 GHz frequency band makes the technique successful for fast and worldwide market deployments. However, concerns about interference have arisen due to the presence of other wireless technologies using the same spectrum. Although the IEEE 802.15.4 standard has provided some mechanisms, to enhance capability to coexist with other wireless devices operating on the same frequency band, including Carrier Sensor Multiple Access (CSMA), Clear Channel Assessment (CCA), channel alignment, and low duty cycle, it is essential to design and implement adjustable mechanisms for an IEEE 802.15.4 based system integrated into a practical application to deal with interference which changes randomly over time. Among the potential interfering systems (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cordless phones, microwave ovens, wireless headsets, etc) which work on the same Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) frequency band, Wi-Fi systems (IEEE 802.11 technique) have attracted most concerns because of their high transmission power and large deployment in both residential and office environments. This thesis aims to propose a methodology for IEEE 802.15.4 wireless systems to adopt proper adjustment in order to mitigate the effect of interference caused by IEEE 802.11 systems through energy detection, channel agility and data recovery. The contribution of this thesis consists of five parts. Firstly, a strategy is proposed to enable IEEE 802.15.4 systems to maintain normal communications using the means of consecutive transmissions, when the system s default mechanism of retransmission is insufficient to ensure successful rate due to the occurrence of Wi-Fi interference. Secondly, a novel strategy is proposed to use a feasible way for IEEE 802.15.4 systems to estimate the interference pattern, and accordingly adjust system parameters for the purpose of achieving optimized communication effectiveness during time of interference without relying on hardware changes and IEEE 802.15.4 protocol modifications. Thirdly, a data recovery mechanism is proposed for transport control to be applied for recovering lost data by associating with the proposed strategies to ensure the data integrity when IEEE 802.15.4 systems are suffering from interference. Fourthly, a practical case is studied to discuss how to design a sustainable system for home automation application constructed on the basis of IEEE 802.15.4 technique. Finally, a comprehensive design is proposed to enable the implementation of an interference mitigation strategy for IEEE 802.15.4 based ad hoc WSNs within a structure of building fire safety monitoring system. The proposed strategies and system designs are demonstrated mainly through theoretical analysis and experimental tests. The results obtained from the experimental tests have verified that the interference caused by an IEEE 802.11 system on an IEEE 802.15.4 system can be effectively mitigated through adjusting IEEE 802.15.4 system s parameters cooperating with interference pattern estimation. The proposed methods are suitable to be integrated into a system-level solution for an IEEE 802.15.4 system to deal with interference, which is also applicable to those wireless systems facing similar interference issues to enable the development of efficient mitigation strategies

Sub-GHz LPWAN network coexistence, management and virtualization : an overview and open research challenges

The IoT domain is characterized by many applications that require low-bandwidth communications over a long range, at a low cost and at low power. Low power wide area networks (LPWANs) fulfill these requirements by using sub-GHz radio frequencies (typically 433 or 868 MHz) with typical transmission ranges in the order of 1 up to 50 km. As a result, a single base station can cover large areas and can support high numbers of connected devices (> 1000 per base station). Notorious initiatives in this domain are LoRa, Sigfox and the upcoming IEEE 802.11ah (or "HaLow") standard. Although these new technologies have the potential to significantly impact many IoT deployments, the current market is very fragmented and many challenges exists related to deployment, scalability, management and coexistence aspects, making adoption of these technologies difficult for many companies. To remedy this, this paper proposes a conceptual framework to improve the performance of LPWAN networks through in-network optimization, cross-technology coexistence and cooperation and virtualization of management functions. In addition, the paper gives an overview of state of the art solutions and identifies open challenges for each of these aspects