A study of the impact of people movement on Wi-Fi link throughput using propagation measurements
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Abstract
There has been a tremendous growth in the deployment of Wi-Fi networks (i.e. IEEE 802.11 networks) in recent years. This growth is due to the flexibility, low cost, simplicity, and user mobility offered by the technology. While various key performance limiting factors of Wi-Fi networks such as wireless protocols, radio propagation environment and signal interference have been studied by many network researchers, the effect of people movement on Wi-Fi throughput performance has not fully been explored yet. This research aims to investigate the impact of people movement on Wi-Fi link throughput in indoor environments. Setting up experimental scenarios by using a pair of wireless laptops to file share where there is human movement between the two nodes, Wi-Fi link throughput is measured in an obstructed office block, laboratory, library, and suburban residential home environments. The collected data from experimental study showed that the performance difference between fixed and random human movement had an overall average of 2.21 ±0.07Mbps. Empirical results have shown that the impact of people movement (fixed and random people movements) on Wi-Fi link throughput is insignificant.