Study on Multipath Characteristics for IEEE 802.15.4g SUN Applications in the Frequency Band Used in Japan

This paper proposes the use of a single-carrier PHY employment for IEEE 802.15.4g SUN (smart utility networks) applications in the frequency band used in Japan. The feasibility of the applications is validated by conducting outdoor experiments and computer simulations. In this paper, the feasibility of employing GFSK (Gaussian frequency shift keying) PHY is investigated under the condition of multipath degradation in the assumed service area; here, transmission power and frequency band are assumed to be 10mW and 400MHz, respectively, as per the Japanese regulations. The results of outdoor experiments and computer simulations confirm that no serious multipath degradation occurs in a service area with a radius of a few hundred- meters and that the application of multi-hop transmission technology can drastically improve the frame success rate, which effectively avoids the degraded radio link by multipath.