Coexistence between IEEE802.15.4 and IEEE802.11 through cross-technology signaling

When different technologies use the same frequency bands in close proximity, the resulting interference typically results in performance degradation. Coexistence methods exist, but these are often technology specific and requiring technology specific interference detection methods. To remove the root cause of the performance degradation, devices should be able to negotiate medium access even when using different technologies. To this end, this paper proposes an architecture that allows cross-technology medium access by means of a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) scheme. In order to achieve cross-technology synchronization, which is required for the TDMA solution, an energy pattern beacon is transmitted. The use of energy patterns is sufficiently technology agnostic to allow multiple technologies to negotiate between each other. The feasibility of the solution is experimentally demonstrated in a large scale testbed using 50 IEEE802.15.4 and IEEE802.11 devices, demonstrating a successful cross-technology TDMA synchronization rate of over 90%.