Dynamic channel selection algorithms for coexistence of wireless sensor networks and wireless LANs

Abstract

Due to the advances in wireless technology and spectrum scarcity, unlicensed band heterogeneous networks are growing rapidly. Increasing users of these networks should compete for the shared spectrum. Therefore, interoperability and coexistence of such networks are becoming key issues that require novel media access protocols equipped with dynamic channel selection to avoid harmful interference. In this paper we focus on dynamic channel selection for coexistence of IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN and IEEE 802.15.4 sensor networks. Dynamic channel selection algorithm can either be implemented on top of an existing wireless sensor network or assisted with an auxiliary spectrum sensing device.In this research couple of dynamic channel selection algorithms have been developed and implemented to evaluate the added value of the auxiliary sensing device. As such, we propose a novel energy-aware metric to detect and quantify the harmfulness of dynamic interference. We also investigated the impact of interference dynamism on algorithms performance and validated the efficiency of the implemented mechanisms by three sets of experiments. Experiments results primarily validate the efficiency of both interference mitigation techniques. Besides, these measurements suggest that the auxiliary sensing device is most beneficial for highly complex interference profiles.

Throughput optimization strategies for large-scale wireless LANs

“…There are many intelligent channel switching algorithms in literature that address the aforementioned issues for both wireless sensor networks and wireless LANs [2], [3]. In [4] the authors propose a framework, which utilizes radio environment maps to make informed decisions on the operating channel of the wireless network in response to performance degradation of the network due to the interference.…”