Energy-efficient detection of intermittent interference in wireless sensor networks

  • Authors:
  • Luca Stabellini;Jens Zander

  • Affiliations:
  • Radio Communication Systems, The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.;Radio Communication Systems, The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

  • Venue:
  • International Journal of Sensor Networks
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

Communications of low-power sensor nodes are easily corrupted by transmissions of collocated devices that inducing packet losses might increase data delay and energy consumption. Dynamic Spectrum Access mechanisms can mitigate these problems. These approaches allow frequency agile sensor nodes to avoid frequency bands experiencing high interference and select channels suitable for their transmissions. In this context, detecting interference and identifying spectrum opportunities in a reliable and efficient manner becomes a task of vital importance. In this paper we propose a new interference detection algorithm accounting both for energy and complexity constraints of sensor motes as well as for the intermittent nature of interference typically experienced by sensor networks in unlicensed bands. We develop an analytical framework that allows to explicitly characterise the performance of our algorithm and also implement it on the TMote Sky sensor platform. Experimental results clearly demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed scheme to identify interfered channels.