2009/02/03 by Marc Portolès-Comeras, Marc Portoles-Comeras, Portoles-Comeras, Marc +9
Computer Science · Engineering · #Advanced Wireless Network Optimization #C.2.1 #C.2.3 #C.4 #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Mobile Ad Hoc Networks #Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI) #Performance (cs.PF) #Wireless Networks and Protocols #cs.NI #cs.PF
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0902.0558
14 pages, 17 figures,
arxiv created 2009/02/03 · openalex publication_date 2009/02/03 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
WLAN devices have become a fundamental component of nowadays network deployments. However, even though traditional networking applications run mostly unchanged over wireless links, the actual interaction between these applications and the dynamics of wireless transmissions is not yet fully understood. An important example of such applications are bandwidth estimation tools. This area has become a mature research topic with well-developed results. Unfortunately recent studies have shown that the application of these results to WLAN links is not straightforward. The main reasons for this is that the assumptions taken to develop bandwidth measurements tools do not hold any longer in the presence of wireless links (e.g. non-FIFO scheduling). This paper builds from these observations and its main goal is to analyze the interaction between probe packets and WLAN transmissions in bandwidth estimation processes. The paper proposes an analytical model that better accounts for the particularities of WLAN links. The model is validated through extensive experimentation and simulation and reveals that (1) the distribution of the delay to transmit probing packets is not the same for the whole probing sequence, this biases the measurements process and (2) existing tools and techniques point at the achievable throughput rather than the available bandwidth or the capacity, as previously assumed.