Packet Loss Characterization in WiFi-Based Long Distance Networks

— Despite the increasing number of WiFi-based Long Distance (WiLD) network deployments, there is a lack of understanding of how WiLD networks perform in practice. In this paper, we perform a systematic study to investigate the commonly cited sources of packet loss induced by the wireless channel and by the 802.11 MAC protocol. The channel induced losses that we study are external WiFi, nonWiFi and multipath interference. The protocol induced losses that we study are protocol timeouts and the breakdown of CSMA over WiLD links. Our results are based on measurements performed on two real-world WiLD deployments and a wireless channel emulator. The two deployments allow us to compare measurements across rural and urban settings. The channel emulator allows us to study each source of packet loss in isolation in a controlled environment. Based on our experiments we observe that the presence of external WiFi interference leads to significant amount of packet loss in WiLD links. In addition ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: INFOCOM
• Authors: Anmol Sheth, Sergiu Nedevschi, Rabin K. Patra, Sonesh Surana, Eric A. Brewer, Lakshminarayanan Subramanian
• Keywords: Channel Induced Losses, Communications, INFOCOM 2007, Packet Loss, Protocol Induced Losses