Mitigating interference in IEEE 802.15.4 network with dynamic energy detection

The extensive utilization of wireless networks requires research in the field of mitigating wireless interference to be urgent and necessary. As the standard designed for low data rate and low cost wireless personal area network, the IEEE 802.15.4 standard is widely employed to construct wireless connectivity among the inexpensive devices. However, the characteristics of low transmission power and narrow bandwidth make the IEEE 802.15.4 system vulnerable to wireless interference. The interference varies in time, frequency and is not able to be recognized since the modulation schemes are usually different. This paper proposes an interference mitigation strategy for IEEE 802.15.4 system to maintain communications during times of interference by adjusting the transmission parameters. The adjustment is made according to the energy detection on the relevant radio frequencies that is used to determine the pattern of idle slots in the interfering signals. This enables the IEEE 802.15.4 system to commence communications within the detected idle slots and thus the communication links are possible to be maintained even under serious interference circumstance. © 2012 IEEE