Usage analysis of a large public wireless LAN

This paper presents a quantitative analysis of the usage of a large public wireless local area network which comprises of several components providing outdoor coverage in a city center and indoor coverage at a university campus and at selected public city premises. Analysis is based on correlating two types of data, RADIUS authentication data for determining the true usage of the network, and access point syslog data for localizing the usage. Analysis reveals interesting differences in the daily and weekly usage patterns of different user groups. Analysis of user mobility shows that users are not very mobile, as less than 10% of the sessions may involve spatial movement of at least 50 meters. 60% of the stations using the network appear to have a "home" access point, where the user spends about 80% of the time.