ABSTRACT
Understanding usage patterns in wireless local-area networks (WLANs) is critical for those who develop, deploy, and manage WLAN technology, as well as those who develop systems and application software for wireless networks. This paper presents results from the largest and most comprehensive trace of network activity in a large, production wireless LAN. For eleven weeks we traced the activity of nearly two thousand users drawn from a general campus population, using a campus-wide network of 476 access points spread over 161 buildings. Our study expands on those done by Tang and Baker, with a significantly larger and broader population.We found that residential traffic dominated all other traffic, particularly in residences populated by newer students; students are increasingly choosing a wireless laptop as their primary computer. Although web protocols were the single largest component of traffic volume, network backup and file sharing contributed an unexpectedly large amount to the traffic. Although there was some roaming within a network session, we were surprised by the number of situations in which cards roamed excessively, unable to settle on one access point. Cross-subnet roams were an especial problem, because they broke IP connections, indicating the need for solutions that avoid or accommodate such roams.
- A. Adya, P. Bahl, and L. Qiu. http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/usenix02/adyabahl.htmlCharacterizing alert and browse services for mobile clients. In USENIX Tech. Conf., pages 343--356, 2002. Google ScholarDigital Library
- A. Balachandran, G. M. Voelker, P. Bahl, and P. V. Rangan. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/511334.511359Characterizing user behavior and network performance in a public wireless LAN. In SIGMETRICS Conf., June 2002. Google ScholarDigital Library
- B. J. Bennington and C. R. Bartel. http://www.acm.org/pubs/citations/proceedings/comm/262116/p55-bennington/Wireless Andrew: Experience building a high speed, campus-wide wireless data network. In Mobicom~'97, pages 55--65. ACM Press, September 1997. Google ScholarDigital Library
- R. Boggs and P. Arabasz. The move to wireless networking in higher education. Research Bulletin of the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, April 2002.Google Scholar
- J. Christy. Cisco Systems engineer. Personal communication, March 4, 2002.Google Scholar
- A. Hills. Wireless Andrew. IEEE Spectrum, 36(6):49--53, June 1999. Google ScholarDigital Library
- A. Hills and D. B. Johnson. Seamless access to multiple wireless data networks: A wireless data network infrastructure at Carnegie Mellon University. IEEE Personal Communications, 3(1):56--63, February 1996.Google ScholarCross Ref
- D. Kotz and K. Essien. ftp://ftp.cs.dartmouth.edu/TR/TR2002-423.pdf Characterizing usage of a campus-wide wireless network. Technical Report TR2002-423, Dartmouth College, March 2002.Google Scholar
- T. Kunz, T. Barry, X. Zhou, J. P. Black, and H. M. Mahoney. http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/346855.346858WAP traffic: Description and comparison to WWW traffic. In MSWiM Workshop at Mobicom 2000, pages 11--19, Aug. 2000. Google ScholarDigital Library
- K. Lai, M. Roussopoulos, D. Tang, X. Zhao, and M. Baker. http://gunpowder.Stanford.EDU ~mgbaker/publications/wwca98.psExperiences with a mobile testbed. In Worldwide Computing and its Applications, number 1368 in LNCS, pages 222--237, 1998. Google ScholarDigital Library
- C. E. Perkins. http://www.acm.org/pubs/citations/journals/monet/1999-3-4/p319-perkins/Mobile networking in the Internet. Mobile Networks & Applications, 3(4):319--334, 1999. Google ScholarDigital Library
- P. Stern. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/abstracts/TR2001-393/Measuring early usage of Dartmouth's wireless network. Technical Report TR2001-393, Dartmouth College, June 2001. Senior Honors Thesis. Google ScholarDigital Library
- D. Tang and M. Baker. http://www.acm.org/pubs/citations/proceedings/comm/345910/p1-tang/Analysis of a local-area wireless network. In Mobicom 2000, pages 1--10, August 2000. Google ScholarDigital Library
- D. Tang and M. Baker. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=506902Analysis of a metropolitan-area wireless network. Wireless Networks, 8(2--3):107--120, March--May 2002. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Analysis of a campus-wide wireless network
Recommendations
The changing usage of a mature campus-wide wireless network
MobiCom '04: Proceedings of the 10th annual international conference on Mobile computing and networkingWireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) are now commonplace on many academic and corporate campuses. As "Wi-Fi" technology becomes ubiquitous, it is increasingly important to understand trends in the usage of these networks.This paper analyzes an extensive ...
Analysis of a campus-wide wireless network
Understanding usage patterns in wireless local-area networks (WLANs) is critical for those who develop, deploy, and manage WLAN technology, as well as those who develop systems and application software for wireless networks. This paper presents results ...
The changing usage of a mature campus-wide wireless network
Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) are now commonplace on many academic and corporate campuses. As ''Wi-Fi'' technology becomes ubiquitous, it is increasingly important to understand trends in the usage of these networks. This paper analyzes an ...
Comments