Bluetooth Performance in the Presence of 802.11b WLAN

technology are poised to make a significant impact in many appli-cations. The complementary nature of the two technologies leads to applications enhanced by their collocation and simultaneous oper-ation. Thus heightening the need for understanding the coexistence issues between the two technologies. A method was developed for evaluating the impact an 802.11b network will have on the Blue-tooth piconet performance. A three step process was used in this development: characterize the 802.11b interference in a stationary environment, characterize the Bluetooth performance in the pres-ence of a single 802.11b interferer and characterize the Bluetooth performance in an arbitrary 802.11b network environment. Em-pirical results were used to develop and substantiate the analyt-ical model. The root-mean-square (RMS) difference between the single interferer empirical test results and the analytical model re-sults was 2%. Analysis results, based on a specific range of radio propagation parameters and 802.11b network parameters, are pre-sented. Index Terms—802.11b, bluetooth, coexistence, WLAN, WPAN. I