A new approach for interference measurement in 802.11WLANs

In Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), the estimation of interference conditions at a receiving node and the determination of interference relations among different wireless nodes is a challenging problem. Interference relations provide the information of which wireless links do interfere if activated concurrently. This information is crucial for the determination of which wireless links are allowed to access the channel concurrently in a time slotted access scheme. Estimate of interference conditions at a WLAN node characterizes the impact of interference on the ability of this node to correctly receive packets. This is also needed for numerous WLAN interference management policies. This paper proposes a method for interference measurement and estimation. Interference measurement will be accomplished through passive observation of the wireless channel. The proposed approach is demonstrated through extensive simulation and real experiments.