Cross-channel interference in IEEE 802.15.4 networks

The growing spread of the IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee protocols to support communications in many contexts, such as industrial environments, home and building automation and wireless sensor networks, has led to the deployment of large complex monitoring networks, in which multiple PANs operate in parallel on different channels. In these contexts, network coexistence may be an issue, due to cross-channel interference. This paper addresses cross-channel interference in IEEE 802.15.4 networks. First, reasoning about the coding used by IEEE 802.15.4, we approximately assess the level of interference generated by ongoing transmissions on adjacent channels and thus the level of noise due to cross-channel interference. Secondly, we present and discuss experimental results obtained through an extensive series of measurements, which were run in order to assess the performance of IEEE 802.15.4 networks under different critical operating conditions.