Abstract
Wireless sensor network protocols and applications, including those used for localization, topology control, link scheduling, and link quality estimation, make extensive use of Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) measurements. In this paper we show that inaccuracies in the RSSI values reported by widely used 802.15.4 radios, such as the CC2420 and the AT86RF230, have profound impact on these protocols and applications. Furthermore, we experimentally derive the response curves which translate actual RSSI values to the raw RSSI readings that the radios report and show that they contain non-linear and even non-injective regions. Fortunately, these curves are consistent across radios of the same model, making RSSI calibration practical. We present a calibration mechanism that removes the artifacts in the raw RSSI measurements, including ambiguities created by the non-injective regions in the response curves, and generates calibrated RSSI readings that are linear. This calibration removes many of the outliers generated when raw RSSI readings are used to estimate Signal to Noise (and Interference) ratios, estimate radio model parameters, and perform RF-based localization.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Anritsu Company. Spectrum Master MS2721B
Atmel Corporation. AT86RF230: Low Power 2.4 GHz Transceiver for ZigBee, IEEE 802.15.4, 6LoWPAN, RF4CE and ISM applications
Bahl, P., Padmanabhan, V.N.: RADAR: An In-Building RF-based User Location and Tracking System. In: Proceedings of INFOCOM (2000)
Chipara, O., Hackmann, G., Lu, C., Smart, W.D., Roman, G.-C.: Radio mapping for indoor environments. Technical report, Washington University in St. Louis (2007)
Crossbow Corporation. MICAz Specifications (2004)
Crossbow Corporation. Iris Specifications (2007)
Ettus Research LLC. Universal Software Radio Peripheral (2007)
He, T., Huang, C., Blum, B.M., Stankovic, J.A., Abdelzaher, T.: Range-free localization schemes for large scale sensor networks. In: MobiCom 2003, pp. 81–95. ACM, New York (2003)
IEEE Standard 802.15.4: Wireless Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications for Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPANs) (May 2003)
Levis, P., Lee, N., Woo, A., Welsh, M., Culler, D.: TOSSIM: Accurate and scalable simulation of entire TinyOS Applications. In: Proceedings of Sensys 2003 (November 2003)
Lin, S., Zhang, J., Zhou, G., Gu, L., Stankovic, J.A., He, T.: ATPC Adaptive Transmission Power Control for Wireless Sensor Networks. In: Proceedings of the 4th ACM Sensys Conference (2006)
Lorincz, K., Welsh, M.: Motetrack: a robust, decentralized approach to rf-based location tracking. Personal Ubiquitous Comput 11(6), 489–503 (2007)
Maheshwari, R., Jain, S., Das, S.R.: A measurement study of interference modeling and scheduling in low-power wireless networks. In: Proceedings of Sensys 2008, pp. 141–154. ACM, New York (2008)
Musaloiu-E, R., Terzis, A.: Minimising the effect of wifi interference in 802.15.4 wireless sensor networks. Int. J. Sen. Netw. 3(1), 43–54 (2007)
Polastre, J., Szewczyk, R., Culler, D.: Telos: Enabling Ultra-Low Power Wireless Research. In: IPSN/SPOTS 2005 (April 2005)
Rappaport, T.S.: Wireless Communications: Principles & Practices. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1996)
Sha, M., Xing, G., Zhou, G., Liu, S., Wang, X.: C-MAC: Model-driven Concurrent Medium Access Control for Wireless Sensor Networks. In: Proceedings of IEEE Infocom (2009)
Son, D., Krishnamachari, B., Heidemann, J.: Experimental study of concurrent transmission in wireless sensor networks. In: Proceedings of ACM Sensys (2006)
Srinivasan, K., Levis, P.: RSSI is Under Appreciated. In: Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Embedded Networked Sensors (EmNets) (May 2006)
Texas Instruments. CC2420: 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4 / ZigBee-ready RF Transceiver (2006)
Woo, A., Tong, T., Culler, D.: Taming the underlying challenges in reliable multihop wireless sensor networks. In: Proceedings of ACM Sensys (2003)
Yedavalli, K., Krishnamachari, B., Ravula, S., Srinivasan, B.: Ecolocation: a sequence based technique for rf localization in wireless sensor networks. In: Proceedings of IPSN 2005, Piscataway, NJ, USA, p. 38. IEEE Press, Los Alamitos (2005)
Zamalloa, M.Z., Krishnamachari, B.: An analysis of unreliability and asymmetry in low-power wireless links. ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks (June 2007)
Zanca, G., Zorzi, F., Zanella, A., Zorzi, M.: Experimental comparison of rssi-based localization algorithms for indoor wireless sensor networks. In: REALWSN 2008, pp. 1–5. ACM, New York (2008)
Zhao, J., Govindan, R.: Understanding Packet Delivery Performance In Dense Wireless Sensor Networks. In: Proceedings of the ACM Sensys (November 2003)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Chen, Y., Terzis, A. (2010). On the Mechanisms and Effects of Calibrating RSSI Measurements for 802.15.4 Radios. In: Silva, J.S., Krishnamachari, B., Boavida, F. (eds) Wireless Sensor Networks. EWSN 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5970. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11917-0_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11917-0_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-11916-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-11917-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)