Multi Channel Performance of Dual Band Low Power Wireless Network

Wireless sensor network platforms share the wireless communication channels with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth based networks, resulting in heavy use of these bands. As a consequence, platforms in wireless sensor networks need to carefully consider external interference to achieve reliable communication. In this paper, we present an experimental analysis of wireless channels for wireless sensor network operating on dual frequency bands. Specifically, we designed a set of detailed experiments aiming to find out correlation patterns in 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz ISM bands. We conducted our experiments on two testbeds and investigated the band correlation between two distinctive radio transceivers in two different office-space environments. From our data samples, we quantified frequency channel and band correlations in parallel experiments that eliminate artifacts stemming from different external activity on the test site. We found that network formed in 900 MHz band has 15% more connectivity than network formed in 2.4 GHz band, even on radio channels that minimize overlap with Wi-Fi networks.