Infrastructure density and frequency reuse for user-deployed wireless LAN systems at 17 GHz in an office environment

Wireless LANs (WLANs) are becoming increasingly popular in modern offices. Network operators start now offering wireless access via WLANs also in public places. Systems usually operate at 2.4 or 5 GHz. Propagation properties in these frequency bands allow relatively large cells. A high frequency reuse is normally applied to limit co-channel interference, however it also reduces the spectral efficiency of the network. In the 17 GHz band, which is also proposed for operating WLANs, propagation conditions should allow tighter reuse, hence a better spectral efficiency and higher capacities. In this paper, we sketch a system design for the 17 GHz band in order to study the infrastructure density required for achieving coverage and to evaluate the spectral efficiency of the network. Simulation results in a typical office setting show that data rates of 100 Mbps can be achieved with a reuse factor of 6 and a moderate number of wireless access points (APs). Network installation costs could be considerably reduced if the need for coverage planning can be eliminated and the wiring of the APs simplified. This is achieved with the proposed user-deployment approach, where customers set up the APs themselves according to some basic rules. We show that this method achieves adequate performance and hence that the network is relatively insensitive to the actual positioning of the APs, provided suitable antennas are used. Hence, low-cost network deployment is feasible without significantly deteriorating the coverage or lowering the achievable data rates