Characterizing, Estimating and Improving the Performance of 802.11 Networks

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Whether on the go, at home, or at work, people increasingly rely on connecting to the Internet via 802.11 (WiFi) networks. It is anticipated that over 20 billion WiFi chipsets will be shipped between 2016 and 2021 and the number of public WiFi hot spots in the world is projected to increase from 94 million in 2016 to 542 million by 2021. Despite the introduction of high speed 4G and 5G cellular technologies, WiFi remains the dominant technology for wireless communications on mobile devices. In 2016, 60% of cellular network traffic was offloaded to WiFi networks and this number is projected to continue to increase. Recent work has found that home WiFi networks are more often the bottleneck in delivering data than the ISP link. Another recent study reports that on average there are 7 devices in every home and the median number of access points seen from a home network in developed countries is 20. Obtaining peak throughput in such environments is extremely challenging because radio spectrums are shared by WiFi devices (e.g., access points, computers, smart phones, tablets, TVs, and game consoles) and non-WiFi devices (e.g., wireless keyboards and mice and microwave ovens). Furthermore, the increasing popularity of WiFi devices exacerbates the problem. It is therefore imperative that we understand how to optimize performance in situations that include dense deployments of WiFi devices.** The focus of our research is to develop tools and techniques to improve the throughput of WiFi networks, especially in environments where performance is impacted by mobility, WiFi or non-WiFi interference, and in dense deployment scenarios. The overarching goal is to improve the user experience by increasing the throughput of their devices when using 802.11 (WiFi) networks. Potential benefits to Canada would be an increase in the number of highly qualified, high salaried, tax paying, employees at Google and other companies in Canada. Improved WiFi communication should reduce delays and increase revenues for Canadian companies that sell products via the Internet (studies show that delays decrease revenues).************