Performance analysis of WLAN in the presence of co-frequency microwaves

Microwave Oven (MWO) and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) both operate in the 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) Band. Microwave oven does not take care of Wi-Fi channel usage; its operation in the same band of frequency can cause degradation of Wi-Fi network performance. This novel experimental arrangement investigates the performance of the WLAN network under the effect of simultaneous operation of two Microwave ovens, in different physical arrangement scenarios. The experiment consists of two laptops as victims, two microwave ovens as interferers, WLAN Access Point as Transmitter and AirMagnet Hardware/Software setup as Performance Analyser. Different Performance Indicators of WLAN performance are analysed in this investigation. It has been observed that Wi-Fi network performance degradation increases significantly when both microwave ovens are located near the receiver (Laptop) side. The microwave ovens have relatively lesser adverse effects when both are placed near the transmitter (Access point) or at center (between transmitter and receiver).