IEEE
WITH OTHER WIRELESS DEVICES OPERATING IN UNLICENSED FREQUENCY BANDS Std 802.15.2-2003
Copyright © 2003 IEEE. All rights reserved.
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802.11b. This high-rate version includes four data rates: 1, 2, 5.5, and 11 Mbit/s. The channel bandwidth of
the IEEE 802.11b PHY layer is 22 MHz.
The WPAN covered in this recommended practice is IEEE Std 802.15.1-2002, which is a 1-Mbit/s FHSS
system. The IEEE 802.15.1 PHY layer uses the same 79, 1 MHz-wide channels that are used by the FHSS
version of IEEE 802.11. IEEE 802.15.1 hops pseudo-randomly at a nominal rate of 1600 hops/second. The
IEEE 802.15.1 MAC sublayer supports a master/slave topology referred to as a piconet. The master controls
medium access by polling the slaves for data and using scheduled periodic transmission for voice packets.
The following is a brief description of the interference problem for each of the three systems: IEEE 802.11
frequency-hopping (FH), IEEE 802.11b, and IEEE 802.15.1.
4.1.1 IEEE 802.11 FH WLAN in the presence of IEEE 802.15.1 interference
The IEEE 802.11 FH WLAN has the same hopping channels as the IEEE 802.15.1 WPAN. However, the
two systems operate at very different hopping rates. IEEE 802.11 FH specifies a hopping rate of greater than
2.5 hops/second, with typical systems operating at 10 hops/second. IEEE 802.15.1 specifies a maximum
hopping rate of 1600 hops/second for data transfer. So while IEEE 802.11 FH dwells on a given frequency
for approximately 100 ms, IEEE 802.15.1 will have hopped 160 times. So the odds are that IEEE 802.15.1
will hop into the frequency used by IEEE 802.11 FH several times while IEEE 802.11 FH is dwelling on a
given channel. IEEE 802.11 FH packets will be corrupted by the IEEE 802.15.1 interference whenever IEEE
802.15.1 hops into the channel used by IEEE 802.11 FH, assuming the IEEE 802.15.1 power level is high
enough to corrupt the IEEE 802.11 FH packet at the IEEE 802.11 FH receiver. It is also possible for the
IEEE 802.11 FH WLAN packet to be corrupted by the IEEE 802.15.1 interference if the IEEE 802.15.1
packet is sent in an adjacent channel to the IEEE 802.11 FH data. For example, if currently IEEE 802.11 FH
is using the 2440 MHz channel then the two adjacent channels are at 2439 and 2441 MHz. Usually, there is
only limited attenuation in adjacent channels. It is likely that there will be limited interference if the IEEE
802.15.1 WPAN is greater than one channel away from the current IEEE 802.11 FH channel. Whether an
IEEE 802.11 packet is corrupted or not depends on how close the IEEE 802.15.1 unit is to the IEEE 802.11
FH unit, because that effects the interference power level.
The IEEE 802.11 MAC sublayer incorporates automatic repeat request (ARQ) to insure reliable delivery of
data across the wireless link. So there is little chance that the data will be lost. The impact of interference on
the WLAN is that the delivered data throughput decreases and the network latency increases. The applica-
tion’s requirements determine if these degradations are tolerable.
4.1.2 IEEE 802.11b WLAN in the presence of IEEE 802.15.1 interference
The high-rate IEEE Std 802.11b-1999 defines a frequency-static WLAN that supports four data rates: 1, 2,
5.5, and 11 Mbit/s. Most implementations allow manual or automatic modification of the data rate. The
higher rates are desirable for many applications but the distance of transmission using the higher rates is less
than that of the lower rates. Many implementations automatically scale the data rate to the highest data rate
that is sustainable to each WLAN mobile unit.
The bandwidth of IEEE 802.11b is up to 22 MHz. There is a potential packet collision between a WLAN
packet and an IEEE 802.15.1 packet when the WPAN hops into the WLAN passband. Since the bandwidth
of the IEEE 802.11b WLAN is 22 MHz, as the IEEE 802.15.1 WPAN hops around the unlicensed band, 22
of the 79 IEEE 802.15.1 channels fall within the WLAN passband.
Because there are four data rates defined within IEEE 802.11b, the temporal duration of the WLAN packets
may vary significantly for packets carrying the exact same data. The longer the duration of the WLAN
packet, the more likely that it may collide with an interfering WPAN packet.