ERFR-CTC: Exploiting Residual Frequency Resources in Physical-Level Cross-Technology Communication

In Internet of Things (IoT), physical-level cross-technology communication (CTC) enables IoT gateways to communicate with heterogeneous nodes economically. However, because of bandwidth asymmetry between heterogeneous technologies, many residual frequency resources are often not fully utilized. Without modification on hardware, in this article, we consider the coexistence of ultralow power (ULP) and WiFi nodes, and propose ERFR-CTC that enables an IoT gateway to fully exploit residual frequency resources without adding additional cost. With ERFR-CTC, the gateway can simultaneously communicate with ULP and WiFi nodes only via a single WiFi network interface card (NIC), which is not only economic but also very efficient. In particular, ERFR-CTC enables ULP nodes to correctly demodulate ULP signals without being interfered by WiFi signals. We then develop theoretical models to quantify available residual frequency resources and analyze the system throughput. Finally, extensive simulations verify that our model is very accurate and show that ERFR-CTC can increase the system throughput by up to 51.4%.