# Evaluation of IEEE802.15.4g for Environmental Observations
## 2 Materials and Methods
### Hardware
#### 2.3.1 Node  
A node consists of a Raspberry Pi 3 (rPi) model, an ATREB215-XPRO-A radio board evaluation kit, a 2 dBi omni-directional antenna, a GPS module and a push button; all housed in a plastic box. The rPi controls the radio board through a SPI bus. The electronic devices are powered by a 22,000 mAh battery bank. Figure 1 shows a node.  
**ATREB215-XPRO-A:** This radio board features an AT86 RF215 radio chip implementing both the IEEE802.15.4-2006 and the IEEE802.15.4g standards. It contains two transceivers, one for sub-GHz frequencies and the other for the 2.45 GHz frequency band. It has two SMA connectors, one for each transceiver, where we connect 2 dBi 1/2 wavelength whip antennas. It is driven through an SPI bus. It is powered by +3 V from the rPi. Table 6 shows the sensitivity for each radio setting in the sub-GHz transceiver.  
**Raspberry Pi:** Each rPi has a Linux Debian distribution. Through a SPI bus, it drives the radio board, configuring it on each radio setting to be tested. After each range test experiment, it stores the results of each test to a system file.  
**GPS module:** We used the Ultimate GPS module from Adafruit, with an external uFL connector to an active GPS antenna. This module is built around the MTK3339 GPS chip-set. It provides the rPi with the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and the position. Each rPi has the same System time, making them tightly synchronized.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**PHY Alias** & **Max TX Power** & \begin{tabular}{c} **Current Consumption** \\ **@max TX power** \\ \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{c} **Receiver** \\ **Sensitivity** \\ \end{tabular} & \
\begin{tabular}{c} **Sensitivity** \\ **Condition** \\ \end{tabular} &
\begin{tabular}{c} **Link** \\ **Budget** \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline
2 FSK-50 & +14 dBm & 84.1 mA & \(-\)109 dBm & PSDU length & 127 dB \\
2 PSK-100 & +14 dBm & 83.9 mA & \(-\)106 dBm & 250 B & 124 dB \\
4 FSK-200 & +14 dBm & 83.6 mA & \(-\)96 dBm & PER \(<\)10\% & 114 dB \\
2 PSK-FEC-50 & +14 dBm & 83.7 mA & \(-\)114 dBm & 132 dB \\
2 PSK-FEC-100 & +14 dBm & 83.6 mA & \(-\)111 dBm & 129 dB \\
4 FSK-FEC-200 & +14 dBm & 83.7 mA & \(-\)104 dBm & 122 dB \\ \hline OFDM1-100 & +10 dBm & 75.6 mA & \(-\)109 dBm & PSDU length & 123 dB \\ OFDM1-200 & +10 dBm & 75.6 mA & \(-\)109 dBm & 250 B & 123 dB \\ OFDM1-400 & +10 dBm & 75.6 mA & \(-\)107 dBm & PER \(<\)10\% & 121 dB \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 6: Radio characteristics of the ATREB215 XPRO Extension board featuring the AT86 RF215 radio chip. For each item in the PHY Alias column (indicating a radio setting), the table specifies the maximum TX power allowed by the hardware, its current consumption when transmitting at maximum power, the receiver sensitivity with the condition in which this value is obtained and the link budget for each PHY (considering the 2 dBi antennas connected to the radios). PSDU stands for Packet Service Data Unit and is the PHY payload. PER stands for Packet Error Rate. TX power was set to the maximum allowed by the hardware.  
Figure 1: Node used in the range test measurement campaign.