Voice capacity in IEEE 802.11 networks

Abstract

We are currently witnessing a boom in the deployment and usage of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). Once only seen within the enterprise, WLANs are increasingly making their way into residential, commercial, industrial, and public areas. The recent efforts of carriers to integrate WLANs into their wide-area service offerings are testimony to their growing role in the future of wireless networking. Voice continues to be the most predominant wireless application and in order to fully integrate with existing and future cellular systems WLANs must deliver high quality voice service. In this paper, we present an experimental evaluation of VoIP capacity in an IEEE 802.11b. Moreover, we identify and quantify the contributing factors that limit the capacity to less than 10 voice calls pre access point.