Constructive Interference in 802.15.4: A Tutorial

Tengfei Chang (1) , Thomas Watteyne (1) , Xavier Vilajosana (2) , Pedro Henrique Gomes (3)

1 EVA - Wireless Networking for Evolving & Adaptive Applications
2 UOC - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya [Barcelona]
3 USC - University of Southern California

Constructive Interference (CI) can happen when multiple wireless devices send the same frame at the same time. If the time offset between the transmissions is less than 500 ns, a receiver will successfully decode the frame with high probability. CI can be useful for achieving low-latency communication or low-overhead flooding in a multi-hop low-power wireless network. The contribution of this article is threefold. First, we present the current state-of-the-art CI-based protocols. Second, we provide a detailed hands-on tutorial on how to implement CI-based protocols on TelosB motes, with well documented open-source code. Third, we discuss the issues and challenges of CI-based protocols, and list open issues and research directions. This article is targeted at the level of practicing engineers and advanced researchers and can serve both as a primer on CI technology and a reference to its implementation.

Domaines: Systèmes embarqués; Réseaux et télécommunications [cs.NI]

Tengfei Chang, Thomas Watteyne, Xavier Vilajosana, Pedro Henrique Gomes. Constructive Interference in 802.15.4: A Tutorial. Communications Surveys and Tutorials, IEEE Communications Society, 2018. ⟨hal-01968646⟩