Assessing Coexistence of IEEE 802.15.4 Networks and IEEE 802.11b/g/n Networks - A Study of Interference Effects

The study of the coexistence capabilities of networks based on the IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.15.4 standards has long been of interest to researchers owing to the individual success of these two technologies in various applications of Internet of Things (IoT). Operating in the same Industrial-Scientific-Medical (ISM) band, their coexistence does not always yield satisfactory results. The performance of a network based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard has been shown to be significantly lowered in the presence of a strong IEEE 802.11 based network (Wireless LAN) to the extent that communication based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard can be rendered impossible in certain scenarios. This work is an effort towards analyzing interference caused by the three non-overlapping channels 1, 6 and 11 of IEEE 802.11b/g/n on the usable 2.4GHz spectrum of IEEE 802.15.4 standard. Recommendations of plausible scenarios for successful coexistence of these two networking technologies have been made. Assessment of the performance of an IEEE 802.15.4 standard based network through the Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) on various channels of operation has yielded valuable insights. The experiments carried out in real-world environment stand as datapoints in predicting and understanding the interference behavior in real-life applications