Research Article
Minimizing 802.11 interference on Zigbee medical sensors
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/ICST.BODYNETS2009.6029, author={James Hou and Benjamin Chang and Dae-Ki Cho and Mario Gerla}, title={Minimizing 802.11 interference on Zigbee medical sensors}, proceedings={4th International ICST Conference on Body Area Networks}, publisher={ICST}, proceedings_a={BODYNETS}, year={2010}, month={5}, keywords={ZigBee 802.15.4 802.11 interference}, doi={10.4108/ICST.BODYNETS2009.6029} }- James Hou
Benjamin Chang
Dae-Ki Cho
Mario Gerla
Year: 2010
Minimizing 802.11 interference on Zigbee medical sensors
BODYNETS
ICST
DOI: 10.4108/ICST.BODYNETS2009.6029
Abstract
The rapidly growing market for wireless technologies (Body LAN, cellular and Wireless LAN) in medical environments has led to a critical need for effective cable replacement solutions. This will enable widespread use of wireless body sensors, utilizing both an effective transmission protocol as well as providing proper infrastructure support. One of the emerging solutions for the body network is the ZigBee technology; primarily because it utilizes small format, low-power, long battery life radios . It is generally used for applications that can tolerate a low transmission rate, but demand long battery life. An essential requirement of Body LANs for patient care is to guarantee reliable service. In this respect, ZigBee faces severe interference problems in the presence of various 802.11 networks, and its viability in the medical environment is greatly diminished. This interference is caused by the fact that ZigBee shares channel spectrum with the 802.11 protocols. In this paper, we first confirm the claims that ZigBee is vulnerable to interference from 802.11. Then, we propose a solution for minimizing interference from 802.11 in ZigBee medical sensors.
