Experiment and Analysis on the Comparison of the IEEE 802.11a and 802.11g Wireless Local Area Networks

An experiment is conducted to compare the performances of path loss and packet loss ratio of the IEEE 802.11a and 802.11g wireless local area networks reflecting the coverage and signal quality. The experiment was performed in typical indoor and outdoor environments by adopting commercial WLAN products. The experimental data show that the IEEE 802.11g WLAN offers a wider coverage and has similar signal qualities in the locations in the proximity while the IEEE 802.11a WLAN demonstrate large variations in the signal qualities. Moreover, the significant impairments of the IEEE 802.11g WLAN are various RF interferences. The IEEE 802.11a WLAN has comparable clear electromagnetic environments