Modeling and estimation of partially observed WLAN activity for cognitive WSNs

Efficient communication in the crowded ISM band requires the communication networks to be aware of the networking environment and to control their communication protocols accordingly. In this paper we address the issue of efficient WSN communication under WLAN interference. We propose analytic models to describe the WLAN idle time distributions as observed by the WSN nodes, together with efficient methods for parameter estimation. We evaluate how the spectrum sensing capability of the sensors affects the performance of the idle period distribution estimation and conclude that the proposed solutions are accurate enough to support cognitive WSNs.