Analysis of Inter Wi-Fi Access PointsSeamless Mobility

Abstract: Wi-Fi (WLAN/IEEE 802.11) has become one of the most popular user access technologies for its high bandwidth and low cost. Wi-Fi provides ubiquitous networks to nomadic users any time and any location. Nowadays, Wi-Fi has been deployed in most of the shopping malls, railway stations, airports, public libraries, cafeterias, hotels and many other public places. It is also widely deployed at homes thanks to DSL modem that include Wi-Fi. These resources can be reutilized by customers who are visiting such places. They can have the Internet services while on the move. As the Wi-Fi technology has very limited coverage, therefore a fast and smooth handover is very important for seamless session mobility of delay sensitive applications like VoIP (Voice over IP), online gaming, conferencing and real time video streaming. In this article, we present our results computed from data which was collected at different sites in Paris city. The objective is to assess if a mobile service could be offered based on the existing coverage. We then focus on computing the average number of APs (Access Points) in each dataset, measure the signal strength of APs, number of candidate APs, channel utilization, status of APs deployed by operators and observe the possibilities for a fast and seamless handover. Finally based on our analysis, observations and results, we will investigate that fast handover and seamless mobility in such environments is possible or not.