Testing the impact of Wi-Fi interference on Zigbee networks

Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), using IEEE 802.11, and Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN), using IEEE 802.15.4/Zigbee standard, share the same unlicensed 2.4 GHz Industrial Scientific Medical band. Co-existence between such wireless technologies within the same frequency spectrum is crucial to ensure that each wireless technology guarantees the desired performance requirements. In this paper we investigate the interference generated by IEEE 802.11 over an 802.15.4/Zigbee network. Results of an extensive measurement campaign are reported to derive the performance of a Zigbee point-to-point network, when different types of traffic are generated and when affected by different levels of interference. Performance is evaluated in terms of packet loss rate, average round trip time and overhead. Tests have been performed on the “European Laboratory of Wireless Communications for the Future Internet” (EuWin) testbed at the University of Bologna, allowing a proper characterization of the environmental conditions during experiments.