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2013 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC): MAC

Performance Analysis of a Multi-PHY Coexistence


Mechanism for IEEE 802.15.4g FSK Network
Chin-Sean Sum*, Fumihide Kojima, and Hiroshi Harada
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Yokosuka, Japan.
*Email: sum@nict.go.jp

Abstract—This paper analyzes the performance of a realistic this flexibility is obtained at the expense of potential inter-
multi-PHY layer IEEE 802.15.4g Smart Utility Networks (SUN) ference among different PHY layer designs in a single IEEE
design and proposes a coexistence approach for multi-PHY 802.15.4g network. Conventional LR-WPAN systems do not
interference management. Technical details of the design such
as network architecture, mechanism protocols, signal formats, commonly have multiple PHY layers specified for the same
device interfaces, regulatory requirements and channel charac- application type, hence creating a new engineering problem.
terization are implemented following the IEEE 802.15.4g SUN We have raised and analyzed the impact of this issue in [3].
specification. The performance evaluation is conducted in a cross- With millions of SUN devices already in the market, and
layer computer simulation based on the MAC (medium access many more to be deployed following the publication of the
control) and multi-PHY technical specification in the standard
with realistic application scenarios and channel characteristics. standard, the interference problem has to be resolved with
To manage the interference in the system, a Multi-PHY Man- utmost urgency to ensure the reliability of the utility service.
agement (MPM) protocol is proposed and evaluated. The MPM Therefore, it is evident that an effective coexistence assur-
is adopted in the current IEEE 802.15.4g standard. As a result, ance policy is essential for the deployment of SUN devices. To
the coexistence mechanism is observed to be able to improve the the best knowledge of the authors, proposal of such schemes
victim throughput performance up to 25%. It is also found that
the throughput degradation in a non-beacon-enabled network is are minimal, if not non-existent. In par with this vision and
50% worse than the degradation in a beacon-network. mission, the authors have evaluated and presented the impact
Keywords: Multi-PHY layer, coexistence, IEEE 802.15.4g, of the multi-PHY interference (IPI) among networks with
smart utility networks different PHY layer designs. To manage and mitigate the IPI,
a coexistence mechanism, Multi-PHY Management (MPM)
I. I NTRODUCTION protocol employing a common medium between PHY layers
known as Common Signaling Mode (CSM) is proposed and
Smart Utility Network (SUN) is the next generation util- analyzed.
ity network with advanced wireless technologies facilitating Extensive computer simulations were carried out to examine
enhanced key technologies such as advanced metering in- the impact of IPI and the improvement achievable through the
frastructure and demand response. IEEE 802.15.4 is a series MPM/CSM approach. The computer simulation incorporates
of standards specifying communication protocols for low a cross-layer design involving all layers from transportation
rate wireless personal area network (LR-WPAN) [1]. Primary layer down to the PHY layer and taking into consideration
applications for IEEE 802.15.4 are sensor networks, personal actual regulatory-specific frequency bands. While layers above
area network consumer electronics and others. To provide the network layer utilize existing protocols, the design, evalu-
IEEE 802.15.4 with the amendment to realize the applications ation and optimization are focused on the MAC layer and the
in SUN, IEEE 802.15.4g, a task group was appointed to multi-PHY layers. The output results feature the impact of IPI
specify the communication protocols and air interface enabling and effectiveness of MPM/CSM from a network simulation
technologies. The standard specification for IEEE 802.15.4g perspective.
was completed and published in April 2012 [2]. The contribution of this paper is two-fold: (a) evaluating
IEEE 802.15.4g specifies alternative physical (PHY) layer the impact of IPI in a realistic IEEE 802.15.4g system and (b)
design optimized for applications in the SUN arena. A total proposing an interference management and mitigation method
of three PHY layers are defined under the control of a for the interference problem. The preliminary discussion of the
unified medium access control (MAC) layer, specified in IEEE topic has been reported in [4], presenting the MPM approach
802.15.4, with some amendments by IEEE 802.15.4e and without extensive simulation results. It is also worth to note
IEEE 802.15.4g. The main rationale of having multiple PHY that this approach was proposed by the authors and was
layers is to target different market segments. Detailed descrip- included into the IEEE 802.15.4g standard.
tions on the multi-PHY layers, MAC layer and corresponding
II. IEEE 802.15.4 G S YSTEM D ESIGN
regulatory information can be found in Section II.
The multi-PHY layer design is expected to provide higher A. MAC Layer Design
level of flexibility and diversity from the aspects of penetrating The base medium access control (MAC) layer design for
the market and addressing timely needs. On the other hand, low rate WPAN is specified in [1]. There are two device

978-1-4673-5939-9/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE 41


categories, the full-function device (FFD) and the reduced- III. P OTENTIAL D EGRADATION IN A M ULTI -PHY L AYER
function device (RFD). An IEEE 802.15.4g network consists N ETWORK
of at least one coordinator and a device. A coordinator is an
In a conventional IEEE 802.15.4 network where only a
FFD, while other devices in the network may be either FFDs or
single PHY layer is involved, passive or active scanning is
RFDs. The coordinator is responsible for controlling the timing
applied to detect and avoid formation of multiple asynchronous
and resource management of the network. A network may
networks in the same location. On the other hand, an IEEE
either be in beacon-enabled mode and non-beacon-enabled
802.15.4g system may consist of several networks operating
mode. A beacon-enabled mode has the coordinator trans-
with different PHY layer designs in close proximity. When
mitting beacons to surrounding devices periodically. Upon
this happens, inter-PHY-interference (IPI) may occur, causing
receiving the beacons, the devices may associate with the
degradation to the system. For instance, in a beacon-enabled
coordinator to form communication links. The process where
mode, when an MR-FSK device intends to start a network,
the devices scans for the beacon is known as passive scanning.
it first performs passive scanning. If no beacon is received,
On the other hand, a network in non-beacon-enabled mode
the device then proceeds to broadcast beacons. Next, other
requires devices intending to join a network to send beacon
MR-FSK devices may perform passive scanning, capture the
request to the coordinator. Only upon receiving the beacon
FSK beacon and join the network. In the IEEE 802.15.4g case,
request, will the coordinator sends the beacon. This process is
since there are three different PHY layer design, it is possible
known as active scanning.
that there is a device with a different PHY, for example, an
MR-OFDM device powering on in close proximity. In this
B. PHY Layer Design case, even with the MR-OFDM device performing passive
scanning, it will not be able to capture the FSK beacon with
In order to target different market segments and applica- its OFDM receiver. This MR-ODFM device will proceed to
tion requirements, three alternative PHY layer designs are start its own OFDM network by broadcasting OFDM beacon.
proposed. The multi-rate frequency shift keying (MR-FSK) As a result, an MR-FSK network and an MR-ODFM network
is proposed to provide good transmit power efficiency due to are formed in close proximity, causing IPI to each other. In
the constant envelope of the signal. The multi-rate orthogonal realistic scenarios, there may be more than two networks in
frequency division multiplexing (MR-OFDM) is designed to the same location generating mutual IPI. The modeling of IPI
provide higher data rates in channels with frequency selective is given in Section III-A.
fading. And the multi-rate offset quadrature phase shift keying
(MR-OQPSK) shares the same characteristics with [1], thus A. Interference Model
making multi-mode systems more cost-effective and easier to In this paper, a realistic multi-PHY layer network is mod-
design. eled to simulate the IPI generated when an interfering network
The MR-FSK PHY may either be unfiltered or with a collides with a victim network. The victim is set as the MR-
Gaussian filter. Convolutional coding may be used as the FSK network while the interferer is the MR-OFDM network.
forward error correction. The data rates supported by MR- Referring to IEEE 802.15.4g [2], several data rate modes for
FSK range from 5kbps to 400kbps. The MR-OFDM PHY MR-FSK and MR-OFDM are chosen as the interfering and
uses fast Fourier transform sizes of 128, 64, 32 and 16, with victim signal. The following are the operating modes: (DR -
binary phase shift keying, quadrature phase shift keying and
16-quadrature amplitude modulation. Data rate ranging from
50kbps up to 800kbps can be supported. The MR-O-QPSK 200kHz

PHY uses the direct sequence spread spectrum to spread the FSK mode 1

band across a wider bandwidth. The modulation is raised 400kHz


FSK mode 2
cosine shaped O-QPSK. The data rates range from 6kbps up
to 500kbps. 600kHz
FSK mode 3

OFDM Option
C. Regulatory Domains 3 MCS 3
OFDM Option
Among the most commonly implemented, are the frequency 4 MCS 3
bands applicable in regulatory-domains such as US (920-928 920.9MHz
channel
MHz band), Europe (863-870 MHz), Japan (920-928 MHz) 920.8MHz
and China (470-510 MHz). The detailed list of applicable 920.6MHz
920.4MHz
bands can be found in [2]. In this paper, addressing the
common portion of most bands, the sub-1-GHz bands in the 920.2MHz

range of 900 MHz are considered in the channel modeling and Fig. 1. Illustration of spectral occupancy and overlaps for MR-FSK and
evaluations. Note that all three alternative PHYs are enabled MR-OFDM PHYs with respective center frequencies and channel spacing.
and specified in most of the regulatory-domains. This example shows the 920-928MHz Japanese band.

42
TABLE I
data rate; CS - channel spacing; MCS - modulation and coding M ODELING OF P ROTOCOL L AYERS
scheme)
Layer Models Description
• MR-FSK mode 1: DR 50kbps; CS 200kHz
Above network Existing traffic models in Qualnet (constant bit rate
• MR-FSK mode 2: DR 100kbps; CS 400kHz
protocol (CBR), super application etc.)
• MR-FSK mode 3: DR 200kbps; CS 400kHz Network proto- IPv4
• MR-OFDM option 3 MCS 3: DR 200kbps; CS 400kHz col
MAC protocol Base MAC layer employing IEEE 802.15.4 Sensor
• MR-OFDM option 4 MCS 3: DR 100kbps; CS 200kHz
Network Library. New protocol design for MPM
The interference model between different PHY layer design scheduling mechanism in both beacon-enabled and
is illustrated in Figure 1, giving an example in the 920- non-beacon-enabled networks
PHY models New IEEE 802.15.4g PHY layer MR-FSK and MR-
928MHz Japanese band with interactions among different OFDM signaling models. New PHY layer protocols
operating modes of MR-FSK and MR-OFDM PHY layers. such as timing mechanism and interference model.
The effective interference power Pbi generated from the MR-
OFDM interferer to the MR-FSK victim can be expressed as:
 Application Layer

 Pi ,

 Application message

 for fv − Wv /2 < fi − Wi /2 < fv + Wv /2






Transport Layer

 && fv − Wv /2 < fi + Wi /2 < fv + Wv /2

 TCP/UDP datagram
 Pi × W
 Wi ,
v

 Network Layer

 for fv − Wv /2 ≥ fi − Wi /2 &&



 IP packet
fv + Wv /2 ≤ fi + Wi /2
Pbi = (1) MCPS-SAP MLME-SAP

 P i × (f i + W i /2 − f v + W v /2)/W i , MAC Common Part Sublayer MAC layer management entity



 for fv − Wv /2 ≥ fi − Wi /2 &&

 - CSMA/CA - Association

 - Retransmission
- Synchronization

 fv − Wv /2 < fi + Wi /2 < fv + Wv /2 - Superframe management

 - Multi-PHY management (MPM)
Pi × (fv + Wv /2 − fi + Wi /2)/Wi ,


 MAC command

 for fv − Wv /2 < fi − Wi /2 < fv + Wv /2
MAC data frame
frame


 PD-SAP PLME-SAP
&& fv + Wv /2 ≥ fi + Wi /2 PHY layer management entity
PHY Layer
where Pi is the power of the interferer i.e. MR-OFDM signal, - BER-based receiver BER table
- Energy detection
- Channel switch
fi is the center frequency of the interferer signal i.e. MR-FSK model - Interference model
signal, Wi is the CS of the interferer signal, fv is the center - Common Signaling Mode (CSM)

frequency of the victim signal, Wv is the CS of the victim


signal, and && represents operation AND. Propagation Models
(Path loss, shadowing , fading)
IV. D ESIGN OF C OEXISTENCE M ECHANISM FOR IEEE
802.15.4 G M ULTI -PHY L AYER Fig. 2. Protocol stack for the IEEE 802.15.4g device with MPM and CSM
In order to avoid the IPI generated, this paper proposes a functionalities.
MAC multi-PHY management (MPM) mechanism employing
a Common Signaling Mode (CSM) PHY signal. The funda-
mental idea of this mechanism is to schedule mutual detection characterization is included in the propagation models. In the
by either passive or active scanning of devices through a PHY layer, IEEE 802.15.4g has two planes in the device
commonly predefined common signaling. Details of the design architecture, the data plane and the management plane. The
are given in the following sections. management plane uses the PHY layer management entity
(PLME) and interfaces with the upper layer through the PLME
A. System Design Philosophy service access point (SAP). On the other hand, the data
The system modeling and evaluation are conducted using plane uses the PHY data (PD) SAP. The PLME and PD is
the system simulation tool Qualnet and Matlab. The event- connected to the MAC layer through MAC command frame
based simulation in the MAC layer is modeled in Qualnet and MAC data frame. In the MAC sublayer, the MAC layer
while the link layer simulation in the PHY layer is modeled management entity (MLME) uses the MLME-SAP while the
using Matlab. All other upper layers are included in Qualnet. MAC data uses the MAC Common Part Sublayer (MCPS)
The summary of the existing features in the multiple layers SAP. The connection to the network layer is the internet
are shown in Table I. protocol (IP) packet. Further upper, there are the Transmission
Based on the features in Table I, we have constructed the Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
basic architecture of the IEEE 802.15.4 with new functions for connecting the transport layer. Finally the application
added to the protocol stack. Figure 2 shows the multiple stacks message connects the application layer. All layers above the
in the layers. At the wireless channel, sub-1-GHz channel MAC sublayer are referred to as next higher layers (NHL).

43
Device 1 Device 2
operating in a particular channel. In a beacon-enabled network,
NHL MLME
CSM
FSK PLME
CSM device 2 periodically broadcasts enhanced beacons in CSM
PLME PLME
to notify surrounding devices not of the same PHY of its
Power on
Scan request Set TRX on (set existence. Device 1, upon power on, performs passive scan
parameters) to detect the CSM enhanced beacon. The enhanced beacon
Confirm contains all the necessary information about the network of
device 2. If an enhanced beacon is received, device 1 knows
Beacon
Only
request
Enhanced that an existing network is operating in the region and will
applicable
for Active Confirm
beacon request activate counter-measures to avoid generating interference,
Scanning particularly IPI in this case scenario. In Figure 3, note that
Enhanced primitives exchanged between different layers are such as
beacon PLME and MLME for the management plane as well as MCPS
Indication
and PD for the data plane. Frames such as enhanced beacons
Sperframe

Enhanced
beacon
Indication
and data frames are exchanged between devices through the
wireless medium.
Additionally, in a non-beacon-enabled network, device 2
WIRELESS MEDIUM

Set TRX off


Confirm does not periodically broadcast notification signals to preserve
enhanced Confirm
beacon energy. In this case, device 1 employs active scanning upon
Channel Switch

scanned power on, sending a request for the enhanced beacon. Device
Set parameters
Channel switch
(switch channel)
2 responds with an enhanced beacon if receives a request.
The rest of the protocol are the same. The incorporation of
Confirm
active scanning in the MPM protocol allows a higher degree
of optimization specifically in the area of energy consumption.
With the use of non-beacon-enabled MPM network, IEEE
Fig. 3. Message sequence chart for MPM employing CSM. General case 802.15.4g is able to cover more diversified scenarios meeting
for passive scanning case and specific case on active scanning. different application and system demands.
In this paper, to evaluate and compare the different per-
formance, we have also included the operation of a simple
The mechanism facilitating interface and communication energy detector. In this case, device 1 and 2 do not have the
between layers are known as primitives. Each primitive has transceiver of CSM. Enhanced beacons from device 1 are sent
a set of parameters associated with the related functionalities. employing the PHY of device 1, and receiver of device 2 will
Some typical primitives are transceiver (TRX) parameter set- be operating in the PHY of device 2.
tings, beacon request, status indication and status confirmation.
Note that these primitives are exchanged within the same C. Common Signaling Mode
device among different layers. Besides primitives, frames are In order to increase the probability of detecting the enhanced
also specified to facilitate communication between devices. A beacon in the MPM, it is essential that the receiver is not
frame is set through the wireless medium and is exchanged relying on a simple energy detection but employ a receiver
between different devices. In this paper, frames used to enable with higher detection accuracy. For this purpose, a commonly
and evaluate the coexistence mechanism are the enhanced predefined signaling scheme is important. There are several
beacon frame, acknowledgment frame and data frame. factors influencing the determination of the choice of CSM:
(a) the implementation simplicity, (b) popularity among im-
B. Multi-PHY Management plementers and (c) power efficiency.
To enable detection between networks operating in differ- As a result, mode 1 in MR-FSK was chosen by the imple-
ent PHY layer designs, the Multi-PHY Management (MPM) menters of all the PHY layers in IEEE 802.15.4g. The speci-
mechanism is specified. MPM is a protocol requiring an fication of MR-FSK mode 1 are: binary FSK with modulation
existing network coordinator to send out periodical notification index of 1, CS of 200kHz, and DR of 50kbps. The rationale
signal to surrounding alien devices. To overcome the problem of this choice lies in the relative simplicity of FSK circuits
of a device with a different PHY layer to misdetect the as compared to others such as OFDM and DSSS, large scale
notification signal, a Common Signaling Mode (CSM) is used of real-world implementation and operation, as well as the
for sending the notification signal. CSM is detailed in Section technical superiority of good power efficiency with constant
IV-C. To increase the probability of the potential interfering envelope. The IEEE 802.15.4g standard [2] specifies that CSM
device to capture the notification signal, timing parameters are is required to be satisfied in the regulatory domains with
modified as a part of the MPM specification. more than one PHY layer specified. These regulatory domains
Figure 3 shows the message sequence chart (MSC) between are 2480-2483.5MHz (worldwide), 902-928MHz (US), 863-
device 1 (a potential interfering device) and device 2 (an 870MHz (Europe), 920-928MHz (Japan) and 470-510MHz
existing device operating in the current channel). Device 2 is (China).

44
TABLE II
12.8
S IMULATION PARAMETER S ETTINGS

Victim average thro ughput


12.7

Parameter Value 12.6


Network radius 45m

(bps)
Network type beacon-enabled and non-beacon- 12.5 Unsynchronized
enabled MPM
Interferer TX power 5dBm 12.4
Energy detection
Victim TX power 5dBm
12.3
No. of victim device 10
Victim network MR-FSK mode 2 12.2
Victim transmission interval 10s 10 20 30 40 50
TI Interferer device num ber
Typical frame size L 20 octets
Interferer network MR-OFDM Option 4 MCS 3
CSM FSK mode 1
Fig. 4. Number of interferer device vs. victim average throughput in varying
Frequency band 920-928MHz [5], [6] coexistence mechanism.
Path loss Hata Urban Model [7]
Shadowing mean 4dB

transmission every 10s interval. The theoretical throughput is


TI , where L is frame length in octets, Ts is the symbol
8LTs R

V. P ERFORMANCE A NALYSIS duration and TI is the frame transmission interval. In this


Based on the proposed design for the MPM/CSM coexis- evaluation, for the victim system, we are using L=20, Ts =10µs
tence protocol, computer simulation is conducted to investigate and TI =10s, giving the theoretical throughput of 16bps. Other
the performance degradation and achievable improvement. In parameter settings are summarized in Table II.
the simulations, the network radius is set to 45m, centered It is observed that the unsynchronized approach has the
at the coordinator. Surrounding devices are powered on ran- worst performance of the three. As the number of devices in
domly. In a beacon-enabled network, devices perform passive the interferer network gradually increases to 50, the average
scan while in a non-beacon-enabled network, devices perform throughput decreases from 12.55bps to 12.25bps, a 2.5%
active scan requesting for a beacon. drop. On the other hand, by employing the energy detection
First, the victim network is set as the MR-FSK network. approach, the throughput degradation can be maintained at
The victim network is the existing network operating in a 12.4bps at 50 interferer devices. When MPM/CSM is em-
particular area. Next, an MR-OFDM network acting as the ployed, there is no clear observation on throughput degradation
interfering network is allowed to deploy in close proximity despite increasing number of interferer devices. Device aver-
of the victim network. MPM/CSM coexistence protocol is age throughput is at remained 12.65bps. This is reasonable
included in the simulation to examine its effectiveness by because with MPM/CSM, two multi-PHY networks can be
evaluating the performance with and without it. In this paper, scheduled to detect each other as if they are homogeneous.
the MR-FSK network is operating at FSK mode 2 while the
B. Impact of Device Transmission Interval
MR-OFDM network is operating at option 4 MCS 3, both
100kbps data rate modes. The CSM, when activated by the Figure 5 shows the victim network average device through-
MPM protocol, is FSK mode 1 operating at 50kbps. The frame put corresponding to different transmission interval of the
formats, primitives and PHY/MAC attributes are specified interfering network. In Figure 5(a), victim and interfering
according to the technical design in the standard [2]. networks are left to be deployed randomly without any coexis-
Table II summarizes the parameter settings for computer tence approach, while in Figure 5(b), MPM/CSM is activated.
simulation in both the Qualnet and Matlab environments. Other parameter settings are summarized in Table II.
In Figure 5(a), throughput degradation occurs as devices in
A. Inter-PHY-Interference and Improvement of MPM Protocol the interfering network increase their transmission interval, i.e.
Figure 4 shows the average device throughput of the victim more frequent frames transmissions. Furthermore, the degra-
network. In this evaluation, three approaches are considered, dation becomes worse when more devices join the interfering
unsynchronized, energy detection and MPM. The unsynchro- network. As interferer transmission interval decreases, victim
nized approach is having no means to manage interference devices are observed to have a gradually increasing average
the victim network and the potential interferer network. The throughput. In the worst case scenario, in the presence of
energy detection approach is having the coordinator of the 50 interfering devices, each with transmission interval of
potential interfering network to simply detect the energy of 0.01s, the average victim device throughput is 10bps. This
the victim network’s enhanced beacon before deploying its is improved by 20% by reducing the interferer transmission
own network. The MPM/CSM approach is the one proposed in interval to 10s.
this paper. Note that the average device throughput falls around On the other hand, as shown in Figure 5(b), for the case
12bps. This is because average device throughput is defined as where MPM/CSM is activated, no degradation is observed
the average throughput across the total duration, e.g. 20 octets in any combinations of the interferer parameter settings. The

45
(a) 13 (a) 14 Interferer

V ict im aver age thro ughput


Interferer 12 transmission
Victi m averag e th ro u g h p u t

12.5
device interval
number 10 0.01s
12
10 0.05s
8

( bps )
11.5 20
(b p s)

0.1s
30 6
11 0.5s
40 4
1.0s
10.5 50
2 10.0s
10 10 20 30 40 50
(a)

12
9.5 (b)
0.01s 0.05s 0.1s 0.5s 1.0s 10.0s 11.5
(b)
11
(b) 14 10.5

13 10
12 9.5
0.01s 0.05s 0.1s 0.5s 1.0s 10.0s 9
10 20 30 40 50
In t e rf e re r t ra n s m i s s i o n i n t e rv a l Interferer devi ce number

Fig. 5. Interfering device transmission interval vs. average device throughput. Fig. 6. Number of interfering device vs. average device throughput in a
(a) Unsynchronized approach. (b) MPM/CSM. non-beacon-enabled network. (a) Unsynchronized approach. (b) MPM/CSM.

victim throughput is stable at 13bps. The victim throughput VI. C ONCLUSION


performance becomes independent from the settings of the This paper has presented a realistic evaluation of interfer-
interferer network. There is an approximate 25% improvement ence due multi-PHY layer in IEEE 802.15.4g SUN system.
from the worst case scenario. An interference management and mitigation approach has
also been proposed and the effectiveness has been validated
C. Performance in Non-Beacon-Enabled Network by simulation results. Future works include a more practical
evaluation such as performance in the tree or mesh network
Figure 6 shows the relationship between number of interfer- and different combinations of victim-interferer scenarios.
ing devices and the average victim device throughput in a non-
beacon-enabled network, considering both unsynchronized and R EFERENCES
MPM/CSM scenarios. [1] IEEE Std. 802.15.4-2011, Part 15.4: Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area
Figure 6(a) shows that in a non-beacon-enabled network, Networks (LR-WPANs), Sept. 2011.
[2] IEEE Std. 802.15.4g, Part 15.4: Part 15.4: Low-Rate Wireless Personal
despite the performance curves following the same behavior, a Area Networks (LR-WPANs), Amendment 3: Physical Layer (PHY)
main difference is that the victim average throughput becomes Specifications for Low Data Rate, Wireless, Smart Metering Utility
collectively lower. As the interferer device number increases Networks, April 2012.
[3] Chin-Sean Sum, Hiroshi Harada, Fumihide Kojima, and Lu Liru, ”An
to 50 at transmission interval 0.1s, the average throughput Interference Management Protocol for Multiple Physical Layer in IEEE
degrades to only 4bps, a 50% difference as compared to 802.15.4g Smart Utility Networks,” IEEE Communications Magazine.
beacon-enabled network. (Accepted)
[4] Chin-Sean Sum, Mohammad Azizur Rahman, Chen Sun, Fumihide Ko-
In Figure 6(b), when MPM/CSM is activated, two major jima, and Hiroshi Harada, ”Performance of Common Signaling Mode for
observations are obtained: there is a slight degradation of the Multi-PHY Management in Smart Utility Networks,” IEEE International
Conference on Communication (ICC) 2011, Workshop on Smart Grid
mean average throughput at around 10.5bps, and performance Communications, Kyoto, Japan, 5-9 June 2011, pp. 1-5.
in the presence of different interferer parameter settings give [5] T. Rappaport, et. al., ”900-MHz Multipath Propagation Measurements
a more fluctuated performance, unlike the stable throughput for U.S. Digital Cellular Radiotelephone,” IEEE Trans. on Vehicular
Tech., vol.39, no.2, May 1990.
across varying interferer device numbers in the beacon-enabled [6] M.K. Simon and M.S. Alouini, ”Digital Communications over Fading
network. Channels: A Unified Approach to Performance Analysis,” John Wiley &
The main reason of these unique behaviors is the trans- Sons, Inc., New York, 2000.
[7] S. Sampei, ”Applications of Digital wireless Technologies to Global
mission of enhanced beacon requests in the active scanning Wireless Communications” Feher/Prentice Hall, 1997.
process for non-beacon-enabled network. Transmissions of
beacon request and enhanced beacons increase the chances
of backing off and frame collisions among devices. In other
words, the addition of beacon requests is the reason of
throughput degradation and fluctuation in this evaluation.
However, it should be noted that the non-beacon-enabled
network is more energy-efficient, a topic not within the scope
of this work.

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