Assessing the performance of ZigBee in a reverberant environment using a mode stirred chamber

The application of ZigBee networks to highly reverberant environments has been investigated using a reverberation chamber. Different Q-factors were set up, by loading the reverberation chamber, and the performance of a COTS ZigBee system was recorded. It has been found that the ZigBee system tested is capable of working in highly reverberant environments and is only seriously limited for a value of Q-factor above 5000, which is greater than that which would typically be encountered outside of a laboratory. The packet error rate (PER) was generally found to be very low for Q-factors between 1000 and 5000, with the possibility a high PER for same combinations of stirrer and antenna positions. With a Q of below 1000 the transceivers were found to work with a PER below 1% regardless of antenna and stirrer positions and the corresponding fading is nearly flat over a data symbol's bandwidth. Radio performance is presented in terms of the packet error rate and this is related to the measured and simulated channel impulse response.