16-Channel-Analyser for parallel IEEE 802.15.4 monitoring

Industrial automation applications, which use wireless communication systems working in the 2.4 GHz band, are growing. In particular the number of solutions based on the physical layer of IEEE 802.15.4 is increasing. Thus, you will find systems according to standards such as ISA SP100.a, WirelessHART or ZigBee as well as many systems with proprietary protocols. In order to establish reliable connections and to ensure guaranteed quality of service, sophisticated analysers and monitors are required. This paper presents a concept and an implementation of a wireless packet analyser, which is able to monitor wireless systems with IEEE 802.15.4 physical layer independent of the higher protocol layers. Up to 16 channels can be captured in parallel with a sample rate up to 3200 samples per second.