RF propagation analysis for ZigBee Sensor Network using RSSI measurements

The scope of this work is to investigate the RF behavior of ZigBee devices operating within a real environment. On this purpose a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) ZigBee based has been deployed in a specific indoor context. Three different RSSI measurement campaigns have been carried out to characterize the main propagation features. On the basis of the experimental results it has been possible to analyze the different factors that affect the measurements, such as external factors (e.g. multipath, fading) or internal ones (e.g. hardware device, integrated antennas). The first campaign, made nearby the transmitter, was performed to study the internal and external factor effects, the second one to extend the range of the first experiment, and the latter to investigate the propagation trying to isolate the external phenomena. Furthermore to deeply analyze the ZigBee behavior we have compared the measurements with a suitable propagation model. This work allows the definition of the main performance requirements for a ZigBee Sensor Network deployed in real building environment.