Towards efficient coexistence of IEEE 802.15.4e TSCH and IEEE 802.11

TL;DR

This paper proposes a cooperative control approach to enable coexistence of IEEE 802.15.4e TSCH and IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi networks in the same spectrum, using over-the-air synchronization and collision avoidance techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a synchronization mechanism allowing Wi-Fi to avoid interference with TSCH networks without requiring standard modifications.

Findings

Wi-Fi can synchronize with TSCH to avoid collision periods

Prototype implementation on COTS devices demonstrates feasibility

Significant performance improvements in coexistence scenarios

Abstract

A major challenge in wide deployment of smart wireless devices, using different technologies and sharing the same 2.4 GHz spectrum, is to achieve coexistence across multiple technologies. The IEEE~802.11 (WLAN) and the IEEE 802.15.4e TSCH (WSN) where designed with different goals in mind and both play important roles for respective applications. However, they cause mutual interference and degraded performance while operating in the same space. To improve this situation we propose an approach to enable a cooperative control which type of network is transmitting at given time, frequency and place. We recognize that TSCH based sensor network is expected to occupy only small share of time, and that the nodes are by design tightly synchronized. We develop mechanism enabling over-the-air synchronization of the Wi-Fi network to the TSCH based sensor network. Finally, we show that Wi-Fi network can avoid transmitting in the "collision periods". We provide full design and show prototype implementation based on the Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices. Our solution does not require changes in any of the standards.