Distributed approach for channel quality estimation using dedicated nodes in industrial WSN

A way to deal with the variations in the link quality of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) is the use of strategies for Dynamic Channel Allocation (DCA). The first step to perform DCA is estimating the channel quality, so that the network nodes can decide if a channel change is needed, and the best channel to be used. This paper proposes a distributed approach with nodes dedicated to monitor channel quality, by using the Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) and the Link Quality Indicator (LQI) to identify low quality channels. This approach is acceptable in industrial WSN, since the network deployment can be performed with adequate planning. Furthermore, the sensor nodes do not need to stop their operation for monitoring the channel quality. As a first step, experiments were performed in a real industrial environment to identify the relation between RSSI and LQI traces, and the Packet Error Rate for different channels, by using IEEE 802.15.4 radios operating in the 2.4 GHz band.