| MS TSA Meeting

Name of the Speaker: Ms. Pavithra K (EE21S045)
Guide: Dr. Venkatesh Ramaiyan
Venue: Online
Online meeting link: https://meet.google.com/yop-vbde-azx
Date/Time: 28th June 2024 (Friday), at 10:00 AM to 11.00 AM
Title: Review of IEEE 802.11 Link Performance using Wireless Packet Capture: A Model-Based Approach

Abstract :

Understanding Wi-Fi performance and monitoring Wi-Fi health are crucial aspects of effectively managing and addressing challenges in Wi-Fi deployment. By monitoring the Wi-Fi channel over time, service providers can make more informed decisions regarding network enhancements and radio resource allocation algorithms. This work proposes a novel mechanism to assess and interpret Wi-Fi link performance by analyzing packet capture from a Wi-Fi radio in monitor mode. Using a model of the DCF/EDCA mechanism, the long-term average throughput of a saturated Wi-Fi link is characterized in terms of finer performance measures, including channel access delay, transmission opportunities, collision and retransmission rates, and configuration settings, including average PHY rate and AMPDU aggregation levels. By analyzing the wireless packet capture, the evolution of the Wi-Fi radio through the transmission opportunities, idle/backoff durations and channel busy states is investigated. This pcap analysis permits studying idle time in the channel, quantifying non-Wi-Fi energy in the channel, detecting instances of unfair channel access and identifying hidden/parallel transmissions. These findings provide valuable insights into explaining the measured link metrics and throughput. The utility and effectiveness of this proposal are illustrated by reviewing Wi-Fi link performance in a variety of test network scenarios. A quantitative metric to measure the impact of the channel and network parameters on link throughput is also presented.