Understanding the impact of cross technology interference on IEEE 802.15.4

Abstract

Over the last few decades, we witnessed notable progress in wireless communication. This has led to rapid emergence of heterogeneous wireless technologies that share the RF spectrum in an un-coordinated way. Such a coexistence introduces high uncertainty and complexity to the medium, affecting reliability and availability of wireless net works. This problem aggravates for technologies operating in the lightly regulated, yet crowded ISM bands. To address coexistence of different technologies in the scarce RF spectrum, provide proper interference-aware protocols, and mitigation schemes, we need to develop a good understanding of the interaction patterns of these technologies. In this paper, we provide a thorough study of the implications of Cross Technology Interference (CTI) on the particularly vulnerable low-power IEEE 802.15.4 wireless networks. We identify the underlying vulnerabilities that hamper 802.15.4 to withstand CTI. We show that the uncertainty that CTI induces on the wireless channel is not completely stochastic; CTI exhibits distinct patterns that can be exploited by interference-aware protocols.