Comparative Performance Evaluation of Image Descriptors over IEEE 802.11b Noisy Wireless Networks

In this paper we evaluate the image retrieval procedure over an IEEE 802.11b Ad Hoc network, operating in 2.4GHz, using IEEE Distributed Coordination Function CSMA/CA as the multiple access scheme. IEEE 802.11 is a widely used network standard, implemented and supported by a variety of devices, such as desktops, laptops, notebooks, mobile phones etc., capable of providing a variety of different services, such as file transfer, internet access et.al. Therefore, we consider IEEE 802.11b being a suitable technology to investigate the case of conducting image retrieval over a wireless noisy channel. The model we use to simulate the noisy environment is based on the scenario in which the wireless network is located in an outdoor noisy environment, or in an indoor environment of partial LOS - Line-of-sight power. We used a large number of descriptors reported in literature in order to evaluate which one has the best performance in terms of Mean Average Precision - MAP values under those circumstances. Experimental results on known benchmarking database show that the majority of the descriptors appear to have decreased performance when transferred and used in such noisy environments.