A Study on Co-Existing Heterogeneous Wireless Networks for Data Transmission within a Nuclear Facility

Deployment of wireless technologies is a salient need for modernization, automation, and improved operation of nuclear power plants (NPPs). As a single technology cannot support the everchanging needs, it is required to have a heterogeneous wireless network architecture to address
the different technical and economic challenges. However, the coexistence of these multi-band
heterogeneous wireless networks brings numerous challenges due to the factors including dissimilarity in their channel access mechanism, distance between nodes, transmit power level and
many more. This paper develops real-world experiments and simulations of wireless coexistence
for Wi-Fi, fifth generation cellular (5G), and Zigbee in the unlicensed band to understand the challenges and opportunities. The experiments were conducted over the Platform for Open Wireless
Data-driven Experimental Research (POWDER) testbed at the University of Utah. In addition,
this paper is the first to propose a novel packet rate control technique at the network layer to create
temporary opportunities for 5G or Zigbee signal transmissions focusing its application in a nuclear facility while using the shared band. The performance of the proposed coexistence solution
is validated with experimental results and simulation.