SoNIC

Abstract

Sensor networks that operate in the unlicensed 2.4~GHz frequency band suffer cross-technology radio interference from a variety of devices, e.g., Bluetooth headsets, laptops using WiFi, or microwave ovens. Such interference has been shown to significantly degrade network performance. We present SoNIC, a system that enables resource-limited sensor nodes to detect the type of interference they are exposed to and select an appropriate mitigation strategy. The key insight underlying SoNIC is that different interferers disrupt individual 802.15.4 packets in characteristic ways that can be detected by sensor nodes. In contrast to existing approaches to interference detection, SoNIC does not rely on active spectrum sampling or additional hardware, making it lightweight and energy-efficient.