An Experimental Study of Cross-Technology Interference in In-Vehicle Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wireless in-vehicle networks are considered as a flexible and cost-efficient solution for the new generation of cars. One of the candidate wireless technologies for these wireless sensor networks is the IEEE 802.15.4 standard which operates in the 2.4 GHz ISM band. This is while the number of wireless devices that operate in this band is ever increasing. This broad usage of the same RF band may cause considerable performance degradation of wireless networks due to interference. There is some work on the coexistence of the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol and other standard technologies such as IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) and IEEE 802.15.1 (Bluetooth), but none of it considers the highly dynamic conditions of in-vehicle networks. In this paper, we investigate the interference behavior in in-vehicle environments using real-world experiments. We consider different scenarios and measure the interference on all the 16 channels of IEEE 802.15.4 in the 2.4 GHz band.The measurement data set is available to the public. This real-world data set can be used for realistic and accurate network simulation. To study the effect of interference on in-vehicle networks, we use this data set to evaluate the performance of an IEEE 802.15.4e TSCH link. The simulation results show that the packet error rate for some interference scenarios is considerably high and dynamic over time. This shows the value of the data set and reveals the importance of using adaptive interference mitigation techniques to improve the reliability of wireless in-vehicle networks.