WLAN measurements


Introduction

WLAN networks are operating in non licensed band. As such they do not need frequency planning but also the interference level is not controlled. A bad communication environment could significantly to deteriorate the communication quality. Additionally to the interference imposed limitation the 802.11 family products have limitations when used for real time communication, like for example for voice communication. 

In this laboratory work we measure the WLAN radio environment and particularly the channel data throughput. The laboratory work contains two parts. In the first part we investigate how the channel attenuation and IP packet size impact the total throughput. In the second part we measure the quality of voice communication over WLAN channel.  

Material

Background material for the lab work

Preliminary exercises

Laboratory exercises, hints for the part B 

Links, downloadables, etc related to the laboratory exercise

The main background information for this laboratory work is knowledge about the WLAN 802.11 standard.

Wikipedia page about WLAN. A general overview about WLAN standard.

Current 802.11 standards can be accessed from here.

Mean Opinion Score. Description of the metrics used for charging the VoIP connection quality. That metric is defined in the ITU-T standard P.800.

WLAN course in our laboratory. It contains useful material for understanding the laboratory work. Unfortunately the course is discontinued.  

 

Updated  2-10-2009/Kru