Packet loss ratio evaluation of the impact of interference on zigbee network caused by Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b/g) in e-health environment

Wireless technologies are well known to provide tremendous benefits to the healthcare sector. In the evaluation of the wireless technologies, ZigBee is found specifically suitable for monitoring due to its low cost, long battery life and widely accepted standard. But ZigBee uses the same ISM free band with other wireless techniques, such as Wi-Fi, which is also widely deployed in health care. The coexistence of these techniques in the crowded ISM band will cause mutual interference, which in medical environment has death indication. This paper aims at providing a comprehensive evaluation of the interference between Wi-Fi and ZigBee technologies. Constructing on earlier work led by researchers in Schneider Electric [2], real-time tests were performed in research laboratory and residential environment and results were analyzed to provide a reference for the deployment of multiple wireless technologies to avoid mutual interference.