Spectrum Efficient Communication for Heterogeneous IoT Networks

Abstract

Spectrum sharing for coexistence between heterogenous IoT (Internet of Things) networks degrades data communication effectiveness severely. Cross-Technology Communication(CTC) enables that heterogeneous devices can talk to each other directly, which sheds light on spectrum allocation of heterogeneous IoT networks for efficient communication based on CTC, such as, a WiFi device, as a sophisticated leader, coordinates the spectrum allocation for achieving efficient communication on off-the-shelf devices. In this work, we propose a simple spectrum allocation strategy, which is suitable for any duty-cycles of WiFi and ZigBee devices. Depending on the scheme, heterogeneous devices arrange their working schedules and each device monopolizes its time slots to evade data collisions and reduce wireless interference for achieving efficient communication. We implement a network-layer spectrum allocation technique, called CoWBee, that can be easily deployed in existing WiFi infrastructure without modifying the firmware or hardware of both WiFi and ZigBee devices. CoWBee is evaluated based on our platform and the results show our scheme based on CTC is feasible, which provides valuable insights about the spectrum allocation on achieving desirable performance.