Coexistence of homogeneous and heterogeneous systems for IEEE 802.15.4g smart utility networks

This paper presents the overview on coexistence of homogeneous and heterogeneous systems for the IEEE 802.15.4g Smart Utility Network (SUN), a low rate wireless personal area network (WPAN) standard for advanced utility service. The 802.15.4g specifies three alternative physical (PHY) layer designs, thus having multiple homogeneous systems within the SUN system. The three homogeneous systems are allocated across shared frequency bands dependent on different regulatory domains. Besides coexistence for homogeneous systems, the SUN system is also sharing several frequency bands with multiple heterogeneous systems across various other 802 standards. Understanding the details of these coexisting dissimilar systems is an essential step to creating a harmonious radio environment. Therefore, this paper provides the outline of the coexisting homogeneous and heterogeneous systems, as well as the corresponding frequency bands that are allocated in different regulatory domains. Secondly, the overview on the coexistence mechanisms applicable in the 802.15.4g system is presented. Thirdly, coexistence analysis is performed on two dissimilar systems, where the performance degradation of a victim system is evaluated in the presence of an interferer. As a collective result, it is shown that with victim-interferer separation of beyond approximately 30m, dissimilar systems are able to coexist even without higher layer coexistence mechanisms.