A Passive Solution for Interference Estimation in WiFi Networks

Identifying the cause of an underperforming WLAN can be challenging due to the presence of a plethora of devices and networks operating in the ISM band. Such devices cause electromagnetic interference that can potentially undermine the throughput of residential and enterprise WiFi networks. In this paper, we propose an interference estimation and monitoring technique for 802.11 Access Points that can be implemented without specialized hardware and without any modification to wireless stations. We validate our technique with commercial hardware, evaluating its accuracy with different types of interferers.

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