Rajiv Mathur, Martin Klepal, Alan McGibney, Dirk Pesch

Influence Of People Shadowing On Bit Error Rate Of IEEE 802.11 2.4Ghz Channel

With their low cost and high-speed data rate capabilities, installations of IEEE 802.11-based wireless local area networks (WLANs) are growing exponentially. Although many organisations have started using WLANs, there are still very few tools available that can help the design of WLAN networks. As a result, the current deployment of WLAN networks remains ad-hoc in nature. The objective of this research is to investigate performance of WLAN networks by optimising the position of access points. The hypothesis being that the number and positioning of access points in a large WLAN network can be optimised depending upon the structure of the building, presence or absence of obstacles in the propagation path etc. The research presented in this paper specifically addresses the effect of moving obstacles in the propagation path between a WLAN access point and a WLAN node, thus noting its effect on channel BER. Propagation models will be used that can predict the signal strength and interference in a WLAN system by taking into account environment specific parameters such as the structure of the building, presence or absence of stationary obstacles etc [1]. This paper will investigate the influence of moving obstacles, such as people, on radio wave propagation inside a building and the effect on received signal quality in a WLAN system in terms of the residual bit error rate (BER). Our findings suggest that the presence of moving obstacles, such as people, seriously affects the performance of the system by introducing heavy variations in the received signal strength and BER.