6th International ICST Conference on Communications and Networking in China

Research Article

Understanding Link-level Characterization of Long-Distance 802.11g Semi-urban Links

Cite
BibTeX Plain Text
  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1109/ChinaCom.2011.6158198,
    author={Zhibin Dou and Zenghua Zhao and Quan Jin and Gaotao Shi and Lianfang Zhang and Yantai Shu and Maode Ma},
    title={Understanding Link-level Characterization of Long-Distance 802.11g Semi-urban Links},
    proceedings={6th International ICST Conference on Communications and Networking in China},
    publisher={IEEE},
    proceedings_a={CHINACOM},
    year={2012},
    month={3},
    keywords={measurements 80211g long distance mesh networks},
    doi={10.1109/ChinaCom.2011.6158198}
}
  • Zhibin Dou
    Zenghua Zhao
    Quan Jin
    Gaotao Shi
    Lianfang Zhang
    Yantai Shu
    Maode Ma
    Year: 2012
    Understanding Link-level Characterization of Long-Distance 802.11g Semi-urban Links
    CHINACOM
    IEEE
    DOI: 10.1109/ChinaCom.2011.6158198
Zhibin Dou1, Zenghua Zhao1,*, Quan Jin1, Gaotao Shi1, Lianfang Zhang1, Yantai Shu1, Maode Ma2
  • 1: Tianjin University
  • 2: Nanyang Technological University
*Contact email: zenghua@tju.edu.cn

Abstract

WiFi-based Long Distance (WiLD) mesh networks have been widely deployed with the intention of bringing extremely low-cost Internet connectivity to the rural areas worldwide. Prior studies do not discuss performance degradation in outdoor 802.11g links caused by faulty driver/card-specific proprietary algorithms and have fewer investigations on the impact of external WiFi interferences in terms of burst loss on WiLD 802.11g links. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of long distance 802.11g links in a typical semi-urban environment, concerning the maximum achievable throughput as well as the bursty features of loss ratio. We found that the principle causes for poor link performance are the buggy ANI (Ambient Noise Immunity) algorithm implemented in Atheros chips and the inefficient 802.11 CSMA/CA mechanism for point-to-point links. The former results in massive undecodable frames due to PHY errors while the latter throttles the transmission rate of the sender. OFDM timing and CRC errors caused by external interference contribute most to the burst loss, which appears in the magnitude of several to tens of seconds. Besides, we also document some valuable experiences learned in our experiments.

Keywords
measurements 80211g long distance mesh networks
Published
2012-03-27
Publisher
IEEE
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ChinaCom.2011.6158198
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