Using indoor propagation measurements, the combined effect of received signal strength (RSS) and traffic type (i.e., voice and video) on the performance of a typical WLAN is investigated. In the investigation, both ad hoc and infrastructure network scenarios are used. Measurement results obtained show that RSS has a significant effect on the playback delays of voice and video traffic, especially under higher bit rates. In addition, we study the relationship between wireless channel state and the user-perceived quality of audio and video streaming applications. Finally, we evaluate (by simulation) the number of simultaneous voice and video clients that an IEEE 802.11g AP can support. Results show that the performance of a typical IEEE 802.11g AP significantly deteriorates for N > 15 clients. Our findings show the practicality of deploying indoor WLANs for multimedia applications.
['Nurul I. Sarkar', 'Kevin W. Sowerby']
The Combined Effect of Signal Strength and Traffic Type on WLAN Performance