Effects of radio frequency interference on an 802.11a wireless ad-hoc network

Consumer electronic devices that utilize wireless communication interfaces to share information on the go are becoming a part of everyday life. Many of these devices communicate on unlicensed channels in the Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) and Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) frequency bands. One common communication interface used by these devices is described by the IEEE 802.11a standard. A wireless router is a typical device that employs the 802.11a communication standard. Wireless routers are located in many places we frequent every day, such as coffee shops, libraries, and even fast food restaurants. The proliferation of these devices throughout our environment has increased the potential for loss of connectivity due to interference from other devices. This paper will explore the effects of radio frequency interference on an ad-hoc wireless network of consumer routers in a congested 802.11a channel. In this paper, the source of interference will be a radio frequency sine wave generator. Interference will be measured by recording metrics about the data link, such as throughput and latency, between the different router nodes. These metrics will be monitored as the amplitude of the sine wave is varied to determine the effect of its interference on the ad-hoc wireless network of consumer routers.