Performance Assessment of Wireless Communication Networks through Cross-Layer Measurements

Assessing the overall performance of wireless communication networks is of key importance for optimal management and planning. With special regard to wireless networks operating in an unlicensed band, evaluating overall performance mainly implies facing coexistence issues, associated with the contemporaneous presence of true and interfering signals at physical layer. This task is difficult, if not prohibitive, to be fulfilled only on the basis of single-layer measurements; a partial perspective of network behavior would, in fact, be gained. At this concern, a cross-layer approach is presented hereinafter. It provides for several measurements, to be concurrently carried out at different layers through an innovative automatic station. It aims at correlating the values major physical layer quantities (e.g. channel power, signal-to-noise ratio) exhibit to those characterizing key network/transport layer parameters (e.g. packet loss ratio, one-way delay). A first step towards a full characterization of how the effects of a problem, experienced either at physical layer or network/transport layer, propagates along the whole protocol stack can thus be taken. Details on the procedure underlying the proposed approach, as well as the realized measurement station, are given with reference to an application example