Inter-zone interference avoidance using channel reservation in multiple subcarrier multiple access scheme

Interest in structural health monitoring for which sensors are used to detect structural damage has increased. For low-cost installation, these sensors are required to be batteryless and wireless. The objective of this study is to realize structural health monitoring for large-scale structures using a multiple subcarrier multiple access scheme that functionally enhances sub-carrier methods in radio-frequency identification (RFID) communication. When the target structure is of large scale, it is necessary to divide the structure into several zones because of communication distance restrictions. In this case, some wireless sensor nodes are located in zones where adjacent transceiver ranges overlap, thereby transmitting their sensing signals to both zones; thus, the problem of inter-zone interference due to unintended subcarriers arises. Therefore, we propose a method of inter-zone interference avoidance in which channels are reserved for wireless sensors overlapping adjacent zones. Evaluation via simulation reveals that the average communication capacity reduction can be suppressed compared with the case without channel reservation.