NB-WiFi: IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth Low Energy Combined for Efficient Support of IoT
Leif R. Wilhelmsson, Miguel M. Lopez, Dennis Sundman · 2017
Key features of the two dominating standards for the unlicensed bands, IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth Wireless Technology, are combined to obtain a physical layer (PHY) with several desirable features for internet of things (IoT). The proposed PHY, which is referred to as Narrow-band WiFi (NB-WiFi) can be supported by an OFDM transceiver available in an IEEE 802.11 access point (AP). In addition, NB-WiFi supports concurrent use of low data rate IoT application and high data rate broadband using IEEE 802.11ax technology, based on a single IFFT/FFT in the AP. In the sensor node, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) hardware can be reused, making it suitable for dual mode implementation of BLE and NB-WiFi. The performance of the proposed PHY is simulated for an AWGN channel, and it achieves about 10 dB improved sensitivity compared to a typical BLE receiver, due to the lower data rate.