Experimental Study of Radiated and Conducted UWB Interference and its Impact on the Throughput of 5-GHz WLAN Receivers

Abstract

This paper discusses and reports the measured throughput of a 5-GHz WLAN receiver in the presence of ultra-wideband (UWB) interference signals. Two different experimental scenarios are considered: 1) conducted interference where the UWB signal was injected directly into the victim receiver, and 2) radiated interference where the UWB signal was radiated from an antenna in close proximity to the victim receiver. In each scenario, the performance of the victim receiver was evaluated by measuring the average throughput (average over sending a file 10 times). The measured throughput as a function of the signal-to-interference ratio SIR indicates that, a throughput of 7.8 Mbps can be achieved with SIR of 3.5 dB at the input of the receiver. However, this achieved throughput represents 50% performance degradation. The results also indicate that, having two UWB interference sources as close as 20 cm to the victim receiver could degrade the receiver performance significantly depending on the received signal level. A separation of at least 0.5 meter between the antennas of the victim and offending devices would satisfy the system requirement for throughput greater than 7 Mbps