Cooperative coexistence of BLE and time slotted channel hopping networks

The Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) mode of the IEEE 802.15.4 are two of the most widely used technology standards for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). In many applications, both technologies need to be used in the same environment to fulfill application requirements. However, since they share the same 2.4 GHz ISM band, such networks may suffer from cross-technology interference, which decreases the reliability of the network. To solve this problem, we propose a cooperative coexistence solution for BLE and TSCH networks in which joint time-slot and channel hopping synchronization are performed. The proposed solution uses a scheduling matrix to model the resource usage of the networks. Following this, the overlaps in this matrix are eliminated by rescheduling the transmissions of the networks. The proposed solution does not require any protocol change. The performance of the proposed cooperative coexistence mechanism is evaluated using experiments with real wireless devices. The results of those show that our proposed solution considerably decreases Packet Error Rate (PER); an improvement of up to 45% PER is observed.