Usability testing of wireless broadband LAN in the MEDIAN user trials

The main objective of the ACTS MEDIAN project is to build a high speed WCPN/LAN demonstrator system for multimedia applications and demonstrate it in user trials. The demonstrator system, consisting of one base station and two portable stations, is capable of handling high speed (up to 150 Mbit/s) ATM traffic over a 60 GHz radio link, using a multicarrier modulation scheme. Demonstrating the viability of the concept is the objective of the project, rather than realising the full range of services and features of a WLAN. Therefore, user trials are performed in which multimedia, voice and video applications are tested in different specific environments, operating the MEDIAN demonstrator as a wireless extension to the fixed network at the trial site at TNO-FEL. From these trials, experiences are gained which are used for evaluation of the acceptance and usability of the MEDIAN system. In this paper, the user trials are discussed with respect to user environments, scenarios and applications.