Visualization system of Channel Availability in wireless LAN using a mobile robot

In this paper, we describe a system developed for evaluating channel availability in wireless LAN environment. The system named WevMap provides a new approach to support setting up of wireless multihop networks. The team ldquochannel availabilityrdquo refers to a quantitative measure of the quality of a wireless communication channel considering interference stability and signal strength aspects. To construct high quality networks quickly and efficiently, network designers need to identity the channels with least external interference. For that purpose, we propose two evaluation methods of the availability of wireless LAN channels and implement these methods on the system. This system makes it possible that the network designers understand the physical configuration and figure out the wireless LAN environment of a given region. In addition, it helps them to choose appropriate channels and assess locations whether those are suitable for putting relay station called ldquoaccess pointsrdquo. Therefore the WevMap enables the network designers to control multihop networks readily.