Link quality decrement and spectrum crowded impacts to wireless local area network performances

Abstract

Wireless local area networks (WLANs) are now preferred for high speed internet connections. Compared to cable network, radio propagations are more prone to errors and interferences. The increasing internet users push more access points (APs) installations. Moreover, mobile devices tethering work at the same channels. Since the networks operate on the free license frequency bands, problems are emerged when many collocating APs work at the same area. As results, network performances may decrease. This article investigates how the radio link quality decrement as well as the crowded APs affect user performances. System modelling in Java and repeating simulation help the investigation. As results, it is proven that network performances, such as delay, throughput and packet collisions are affected by those conditions. Link quality decrement up to 1/10 causes packet transmission delay increasing 2.5 times which causes throughput drops about 30% in unsaturated condition. Meanwhile, crowded APs worsen network performances by leaving only 8% throughputs when collocating APs increase from 2 APs to 10 APs.