A New Method for Monitoring Local Channel Conditions in Wi-Fi Networks

Wi-Fi as a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology is now widely deployed. The basic access mechanism of CSMA/CA of Wi-Fi is the Distributed Coordination Function (DCF). It is a distributed access mechanism that allows for different channel conditions within a network, especially in modern deployments where it is possible to have multiple networks operating at the same location. Being able to monitor local channel conditions in Wi-Fi application scenarios can help to analyse the cause of local channel condition anomalies and improve Wi-Fi network quality and end-user quality of experience. On account of the rate adaptation mechanism, Wi-Fi devices will adjust their link rate to respond to channel conditions. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a new method for monitoring local channel conditions in Wi-Fi networks by leveraging the Physical layer (PHY) line rate adaptation mechanism as a proxy agent. We built a monitor device from a TP-link AC1750 router that is used to collect Wi-Fi link rate data in an apartment block in central Dublin for 24 hours and use this data to illustrate the operation of the proposed method. We found that in the active link rate lists collected from this area, most of the devices experienced a normal local channel condition, only a few of the devices experienced a good local channel condition and a small number of the devices experienced a poor channel condition.