Experimental assessment of wireless coexistence for 802.15.4 in the presence of 802.11g/n

Abstract

Wireless coexistence is a growing concern, given the ubiquity of wireless technology. Although IEEE Standards have started to address this problem in an analytical framework, a standard experimental setup and process to evaluate wireless coexistence is lacking. Literature that reports experimental assessment of wireless coexistence places little emphasis on separation distance of wireless nodes under test or the spectrum occupancy of the interfering network, making comparisons difficult. This paper provides an extensive literature survey of 802.15.4 and 802.11 b/g/n wireless coexistence and demonstrates that in a higher wireless channel occupancy environment, ZigBee coexists with 802.11n better than with 802.11g. A reproducible, versatile, and practical test setup is presented to serve as a starting point toward establishing standard practice for wireless coexistence testing of wireless systems in general and wireless medical devices in particular. Experimental evaluations demonstrated consistency with results reported in the literature.