Paper Info
Title
Multi-channel reliability and spectrum usage in real homes: empirical studies for home-area sensor networks
Abstract
Home area networks (HANs) consisting of wireless sensors have emerged as the enabling technology for important applications such as smart energy. These applications impose unique QoS constraints, requiring low data rates but high network reliability in the face of unpredictable wireless environments. This paper presents two in-depth empirical studies on wireless channels in real homes, providing key design guidelines for meeting the QoS constraints of HAN applications. The spectrum study analyzes spectrum usage in the 2.4 GHz band where HANs based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard must coexist with existing wireless devices. We characterize the ambient wireless environment in six apartments through passive spectrum analysis across the entire 2.4 GHz band over seven days in each apartment. We find that the wireless conditions in these residential environments are much more complex and varied than in a typical office environment. Moreover, while 802.11 signals play a significant role in spectrum usage, there also exists non-negligible noise from non-802.11 devices. The multichannel link study measures the reliability of different 802.15.4 channels through active probing with motes in ten apartments. We find that there is not always a persistently reliable channel over 24 hours, and that link reliability does not exhibit cyclic behavior at daily or weekly timescales. Nevertheless, reliability can be maintained through infrequent channel hopping, suggesting dynamic channel hopping as a key tool for meeting the QoS requirements of HAN applications. Our empirical studies provide important guidelines and insights in designing HANs for residential environments.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1109/IWQOS.2011.5931349
IWQoS
Keywords
Field
DocType
wireless device,home-area sensor network,high network reliability,wireless channel,han application,spectrum usage,empirical study,ghz band,residential environment,real home,unpredictable wireless environment,ambient wireless environment,wireless sensor,wireless condition,multi-channel reliability,quality of service,voip,network reliability,wireless sensor networks,reliability,spectrum,cloud computing,interference,computer network,real time,sensor network,spectrum analysis,elasticity,wireless communication,wireless sensor network
Wireless,Computer science,Communication channel,Quality of service,Computer network,Reliability (computer networking),Wireless sensor network,Empirical research,Voice over IP,Cloud computing
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
4
0.46
15
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Mo Sha125123.52
Gregory Hackmann256533.55
Chenyang Lu36474385.38