Coexistence: Threat to the performance of heterogeneous network

Abstract

Wireless technology is gaining broad acceptance as users opt for the freedom that only wireless network can provide. Well-accepted wireless communication technologies generally operate in frequency bands that are shared among several users, often using different RF schemes. This is true in particular for WiFi, Bluetooth, and more recently ZigBee. These all three operate in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band, also known as ISM band, which has been key to the development of a competitive and innovative market for wireless embedded devices. But, as with any resource held in common, it is crucial that those technologies coexist peacefully to allow each user of the band to fulfill its communication goals. This has led to an increase in wireless devices intended for use in IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks (WLANs) and wireless personal area networks (WPANs), both of which support operation in the crowded 2.4-GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band. Despite efforts made by standardization bodies to ensure smooth coexistence it may occur that communication technologies transmitting for instance at very different power levels interfere with each other. In particular, it has been pointed out that ZigBee could potentially experience interference from WiFi traffic given that while both protocols can transmit on the same channel, WiFi transmissions usually occur at much higher power level. In this work, we considered a heterogeneous network and analyzed the impact of coexistence between IEEE 802.15.4 and IEEE 802.11b. To evaluate the performance of this network, measurement and simulation study are conducted and developed in the QualNet Network simulator, version 5.0. Model is analyzed for different placement models or topologies such as Random. Grid & Uniform. Performance is analyzed on the basis of characteristics such as throughput, average jitter and average end to end delay. Here, the impact of varying different antenna gain & shadowing model for this heterogeneous network is considered for the purpose of analysis. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.