An experimental study of interference impacts on ZigBee-based wireless communication inside buildings

ZigBee is a wireless technology developed as an open global standard to address the unique needs of low-cost, low-power wireless sensor networks. This standard takes full advantages of the IEEE 802.15.4 physical radio specification and operates in unlicensed bands (e.g., 2.4 GHz) worldwide at different frequencies. As more and more companies make products that use the 2.4 GHz portion of the radio spectrum, network designers have had to deal with increased signals from collocated networks operating over the same frequency range. This paper aims to highlight the issues affecting co-existence of ZigBee systems in the presence of different interferences. We present an experimental study of ZigBee-based wireless communication over a period of time with WiFi, BlueTooth and microwave ovens. Results are presented for several different link configurations. Based on observations of the Packet Error Rate, we propose interference prediction algorithms to explore the impacts of WiFi/microwave oven on ZigBee communications.