IEEE 802.15.4 PHY analysis: Power spectrum and error performance

We study physical layer aspects of IEEE 802.15.4, especially focusing on the power spectrum and theoretical performance analysis of optimal receivers. We present the first formal analysis of the power spectrum of IEEE 802.15.4. We find that the power spectrum is similar to the MSK signal modulated by a 2 MHz chip sequence. Next, we analyze the error performance of coherent and noncoherent receivers using the actual signal set in the presence of AWGN and under known signal parameters. Finally, we discuss the realization of noncoherent receiver that can be implemented in DSP. Both analytical and simulation results are presented.