Cross-technology Communication

Cross-technology Communication

This work aims to break the barrier between wireless technologies and enable direct communication, using commercial, off-the-shelf devices. We have introduced direct connectivity between WiFi, BLE, and ZigBee. The new connectivity between heterogeneous devices empowers interoperability to collaboratively offer (1) low-cost IoT infrastructure by leveraging ubiquitous WiFi; (2) versatile IoT gateway that can link heterogeneous radios. 

WiFi as a BLE beacon

This project repurposes ubiquitously deployed WiFi access points (AP) into virtual BLE beacons via only moderate software upgrades. Specifically, a WiBeacon-enabled AP can broadcast elaborately designed WiFi packets that could be recognized as iBeacon-compatible location identifiers by unmodified mobile BLE devices. This offers fast deployment of BLE LBS with zero additional hardware costs and low maintenance burdens.  We implement WiBeacon on commodity WiFi APs (with various chipsets such as Qualcomm, Broadcom, and MediaTek) and extensively evaluate it across various scenarios, including a real commercial application for courier check-ins. During the two-week pilot study, WiBeacon provides reliable services, i.e., as robust as conventional BLE beacons, for 697 users with 150 types of smartphones.