Ambient Interference Effects in

Wi-Fi Networks
 Introduction
• Wi-Fi networks employ the IEEE 802.11 protocol,
which uses the unlicensed 2.4 GHz ISM RF band.
• The ISM band is used by multiple devices (both Wi-Fi
and non-Wi-Fi), inherently causing interference for
one another.
• Non-Wi-Fi devices are oblivious to the 802.11
protocol.
• Deployment/operation of Wi-Fi networks often
happens without knowledge of the ambient usage of
the ISM band by non-Wi-Fi devices.
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 Objectives
• We consider 6 non-Wi-Fi devices:
– Unintentional interferers: a microwave oven, two cordless
phones (one analog and one digital) (omitted), an analog
wireless camera, and a Bluetooth headset.
– Intentional interferer: wireless jammer.
• We study:
– Physical layer characteristics of interferers (controlled
experiments)
– Interference on data, video, and voice traffic (controlled
experiments)
– Interference on the operational performance of production
network (passive measurements)
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 Channel Structure in Wi-Fi

• Fourteen overlapping ch. each having spectral bandwidth of 22 MHz.

• Adjacent channels separated by 5 MHz (ch. 14 excepted).
• To avoid interference, wireless radios are expected to operate on non-
overlapping channels.
• Ch. 1, 6, and 11 most commonly used non-overlapping channels.
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PHYSICAL LAYER CHARACTERISTICS
(CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTS)

 Metrics
 Unintentional Interferers
Microwave Oven
Analog Video Camera
Bluetooth Headset
Intentional Interferer
Wireless Jammer

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 Physical Layer Metrics
• Spectrograms:
– Representation of the RF power levels over time in the
spectrum.
– Offer a temporal perspective of RF power in the frequency
domain.
• Duty Cycle:
– Measures the RF power in the spectrum; indicator of the
impact of RF power on network performance.
– Calculated by measuring the percentage of time the RF
signal is 20 dBm above the noise floor.
• Tool: Off-the-shelf spectrum analyzer.
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 Microwave Oven

• Affects 50% of the ch.;

• Avg. duty cycle is 50%.
highest energy in ch. 9.
• Wideband, chirping
• Operating at high power
levels of -80 to -60 dBm. interferer.

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 Analog Video Camera

• Transmit power similar to

that of microwave oven.
• Energy is concentrated on a
very small portion of the
spectrum (ch. 4-8).
• Duty cycle is 100%.
• Narrowband,
continuous interferer.
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 Bluetooth Headset

• Hops across all the

• Duty cycle is 3.5%.
channels (FHSS).
• Energy emitted by the • Wideband, frequency
Bluetooth device may hopping interferer.
appear high.
9
 Wireless Jammer

• Emits signals on all

channels at high power
levels in quick succession.
• Jammer ensures that the RF
medium is never free.
• Duty cycle 10% - 60%.
• Wideband, continuous
interferer.
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IMPACT OF INTERFERERS ON WI-FI TRAFFIC
(CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTS)

 Experimental Setup
 Metrics
 Data Traffic
 Voice Traffic

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 Impact of Interferers on Wi-Fi Traffic

• Study the impact of interferers on data traffic,

video traffic (omitted), and voice traffic.
• First experiment for each workload was
conducted in an interference-neutral
environment.
• Repeat the experiments where the Wi-Fi link
was subjected to interference from one
specific interferer at a certain distance.

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 Experimental Setup

Data Experiment Voice Experiment

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 Experiment Details
Specification Data Traffic Voice Traffic
Tool Iperf (Measure throughput of Pseudo Subjective Quality
the Wi-Fi link using TCP option) Assessment (Hybrid subjective
assessment scheme)

Workload Bidirectional TCP traffic Simulated a 3-minute VoIP

between the server and the four conversation between two people
clients for a period of 3 minutes using audio files

Metric Throughput Mean Opinion Score

Measure Type Quality of Service Quality of Experience

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Experimental Results: Data Traffic
• Minimal impact due to
Bluetooth headset (20%
at close range).
• Microwave oven has
significant impact, even
at long range (25% at
25m).
• Similar impact for
camera and phone
(sharp decrease > 20m).
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Experimental Results: Voice Traffic
• No impact due to
Bluetooth headset at
long range.
• Impact of microwave
oven sharply plummets
with increasing distance.
• Significant impact due to
camera/phone;
consistently decreases
with longer distances.

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INTERFERENCE IN CAMPUS NETWORK
(PASSIVE MEASUREMENTS)

 Channel Utilization
Active Time of Interferers

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 Interference in Campus Network
• Took physical-layer measurements for 8 hours
during a weekday in the campus Wi-Fi
network.
• Measurements were taken at a popular café
frequented by students and faculty.
• Tool: spectrum analyzer.

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Channel Utilization
• Ch. utilization is the %tage of
time a transmission is
present from a known RF
source in a given ch.
• Ch. 1 and 6, utilization
peaked near 60%, while for
ch. 11 it was over 90%.
• Ch. 11 spikes caused due to
microwave ovens, cordless
phones, Bluetooth, and
other fixed-frequency
devices.

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Active Time of Interferers
• Microwave ovens were active
31% of the time.
• Bluetooth devices were active
12.5% of the time and had an
avg. duty cycle of roughly 5%.
• Cordless phones were
cumulatively active for more
than the entire trace period.
• Other interferers were observed
active only 6% of the total trace
period, but had the highest
average duty cycle (15%) and
maximum duty cycle (60%).

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SUMMARY

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 Summary
• The campus network is exposed to a large variety of
non-Wi-Fi devices; these devices can have a significant
impact on the interference level in the network.
• Controlled experiments showed that, even at
distances up to 30 m, some of these non-Wi-Fi devices
can have a significant negative impact on data, video,
and voice traffic.
• It is important to understand and quickly adapt to the
devices affecting the performance of the Wi-Fi
channels.
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