Safeguarded ZigBee via WiFi Guard Band

Abstract

Low power IoT suffers from performance degradation due to severe cross-technology interference (CTI) such as WiFi. In this demo, we present a novel ZigBee system that effectively maintains high reliability even under saturated WiFi traffic. This is achieved by placing a ZigBee packet on the guard band of ongoing, ambient WiFi traffic. Guard band is designed to be kept clear of interference from other WiFi, thereby safeguarding the ZigBee within. Our system effectively captures WiFi (802.11b) guard band on the fly, using physical layer information accessible on commodity ZigBee RF. We demonstrate real-time guard band detection and robust ZigBee communication, showcasing a practical pathway to operating low power IoT under excessive CTI.