A robust coexistence scheme for IEEE 802.15.4 wireless personal area networks

The Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band is shared among multiple wireless networks such as Bluetooth, wireless local area networks and 802.15.4 low rate wireless personal area networks (LR-WPAN). There are some centralized protocols that may work in this coexistent medium. Since management of these methods is done centrally with the help of configuration messages, their performance is strictly tied to the reliable transmission of these data. Clearly, this required level of reliability is in doubt when these methods are implemented in a heterogeneous environment. In this paper we explore how the performance of these standards is affected when they confront with interference. For this reason, WPAN beacon-enabled mode is selected as a representative of the category of synchronization-based methods, and its performance in a co-located WLAN\WPAN medium is evaluated. Then, a rapid-response and robust interference coexistence scheme is proposed to mitigate the effect of interfering systems on WPAN's performance. Simulation results show that the proposed method can be efficiently used to recover an affected WPAN quickly, regardless of the amount of WLAN interference.