Simulation evaluation of wireless Web performance in an IEEE 802.11b classroom area network

Author

Bai, Guangwei ; Williamson, Carey

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci., Calgary Univ., Alta., Canada

fYear

2003

fDate

20-24 Oct. 2003

Firstpage

663

Lastpage

672

Abstract

This paper presents a simulation study of an IEEE 802.11b wireless LAN (WLAN) used as a classroom area network. The simulation is conducted using OPNET modeler 9.1. The first part of the paper discusses parameterization and validation of the simulation model, based on empirical measurements in a wireless classroom environment. The second part of the paper presents a simulation study designed to estimate the number of clients that can be supported in the WLAN, as well as the user-perceived Web response time as a function of network load. The simulation results show that an IEEE 802.11b WLAN can easily support up to 100 clients with modest Web browsing activities. The results also show that protocol features such as persistent connections provide a significant performance advantage in a WLAN environment.

Keywords

Internet; educational institutions; protocols; radio networks; wireless LAN; IEEE 802.11b; WLAN environment; Web browsing; Web response time; classroom area network; network load; parameterization; protocol; wireless Web performance; wireless local area network; Access protocols; Computational modeling; Computer simulation; IP networks; Intelligent networks; Internet; Routing protocols; TCPIP; Wireless LAN; Wireless networks;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Local Computer Networks, 2003. LCN '03. Proceedings. 28th Annual IEEE International Conference on

ISSN

0742-1303

Print_ISBN

0-7695-2037-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/LCN.2003.1243199

Filename

1243199