RESEARCH ARTICLE
Wireless Coexistence and EMC of Bluetooth and 802.11b Devices in Controlled Laboratory Settings
Seth Seidman*, Wolfgang Kainz, Paul Ruggera, Gonzalo Mendoza
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2011Volume: 5
First Page: 74
Last Page: 82
Publisher ID: TOBEJ-5-74
DOI: 10.2174/1874120701105010074
Article History:
Received Date: 12/4/2011Revision Received Date: 23/6/2011
Acceptance Date: 23/6/2011
Electronic publication date: 16/9/2011
Collection year: 2011
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
This paper presents experimental testing that has been performed on wireless communication devices as victims of electromagnetic interference (EMI). Wireless victims included universal serial bus (USB) network adapters and personal digital assistants (PDAs) equipped with IEEE 802.11b and Bluetooth technologies. The experimental data in this paper was gathered in an anechoic chamber and a gigahertz transverse electromagnetic (GTEM) cell to ensure reliable and repeatable results. This testing includes: Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing performed in accordance with IEC 60601-1-2, an in-band sweep of EMC testing, and coexistence testing. The tests in this study show that a Bluetooth communication was able to coexist with other Bluetooth devices with no decrease in throughput and no communication breakdowns. However, testing revealed a significant decrease in throughput and increase in communication breakdowns when an 802.11b source is near an 802.11b victim. In a hospital setting decreased throughput and communication breakdowns can cause wireless medical devices to fail. It is therefore vital to have an understanding of the effect EMI can have on wireless communication devices.