Wireless Network Performance Evaluation with Different Wireless Access Techniques

Abstract

Assigning or selecting channels of the wireless network devices and selecting suitable internet protocols for usability help to make the transmission of wireless networks more efficient in providing services. The objectives of this research were to compare the performance of wireless networks with the technique of access through 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz channels and to compare the access with IPv4 and IPv6 protocols by simulating data transmission with a file transfer program controlling the traffic with the TCP protocol, and with a video conference program controlling the traffic with the UDP protocol. The devices used in the experiment to evaluate the performance of wireless networks with different wireless access techniques consisted of one wireless access point, one switch, 8 client computers and one server computer. The program used to simulate a computer network environment was Riverbed Modeler. For comparison of wireless network performance, throughput and delay in data transmission from source to destination were used as criteria. This study revealed that with data transfer program controlling traffic with the TCP protocol, the 5 GHz channel access method operating with the IPv6 protocol had the highest service efficiency, and with conferencing applications controlling traffic with the UDP protocol, the 5 GHz channel access method operating with the IPv4 protocol had the highest service efficiency.