System simulation of IEEE 802.15.4 wireless sensor netwoks

IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee are new upcoming standards for low power wireless communications systems. A key feature is a possible a battery durability of several years. They address diverse applications such as sensor networks in industrial environments or wireless interfaces for PDAs. The communication devices must comply with the standard and must additionally meet application specific requirements. As an example, the ZigBee standard specifies a packet error rate which must not be exceeded. From both, the specifications for the stages of the receiver must be derived. One general-purpose tool could be the level diagram however this is not capable to predict the performance of a system in presence of an interferer or non ideal components correctly. Instead, a system simulation is necessary. The following presentation describes a top-down design with a bottom-up verification strategy for IEEE 802.15.4 (ZigBee). It is based on a flexible system simulator programmed in Matlab and will be maintained and extended permanently employing knowledge gain from circuit level simulations retroactively