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Performance Analysis of A Multi-PHY Coexistence Mechanism For IEEE 802.15.4g FSK Network
Performance Analysis of A Multi-PHY Coexistence Mechanism For IEEE 802.15.4g FSK Network
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
PHY uses the direct sequence spread spectrum to spread the FSK mode 1
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.
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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
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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
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).
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TABLE II
12.8
S IMULATION PARAMETER S ETTINGS
(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
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(a) 13 (a) 14 Interferer
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.
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