Remote analysis of a distributed WLAN using passive wireless-side measurement

This paper presents network traffic measurements from a campus-wide wireless LAN (WLAN), with the data collected using remote passive wireless-side measurement. We used commercially-available monitoring devices to collect wireless traffic concurrently from 9 selected locations on the campus WLAN for 6 weeks. The aggregate trace contains almost 1 billion wireless frames, representing the WLAN activity generated by 6775 users and 97 access points. Analysis of the dataset identifies similarities and differences in the user behaviours across the observed WLAN locations, as well as emerging trends in WLAN usage regarding application usage and session mobility. Our study extends existing WLAN measurement studies by providing deeper insights into how WLANs are used, and by developing models of WLAN usage characteristics that are applicable in capacity planning, network testing, and network simulation studies.