Mobile Access of Wide-Spectrum Networks: Design, deployment and experimental evaluation

Wireless networks increasingly utilize diverse spectral bands that exhibit vast differences in both transmission range and usage. In this work, we present MAWS (Mobile Access of Wide-Spectrum Networks), the first scheme designed for mobile clients to evaluate and select both APs and spectral bands in wide-spectrum networks. Because of the potentially vast number of spectrum and AP options, scanning may be prohibitive. Consequently, our key technique is for clients to infer channel quality and spectral usage for their current location and bands using limited measurements collected in other bands and at other locations. We experimentally evaluate MAWS via a widespectrum network that we deploy, a testbed providing access to four bands at 700 MHz, 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. To the best of our knowledge, the spectrum of these bands is the widest to be spanned to date by a single operational access network. A key finding of our evaluation is that under a diverse set of operating conditions, mobile clients can accurately predict their performance without a direct measurement at their current location and spectral bands.