Data Downloading on the Sparse Coverage-Based Wireless Networks

Infostation, hotspot, and drive-thru internet are examples of sparse coverage-based wireless networks. These wireless communication networks provide low-cost, delay insensitive high data rate services intermittently with discontinuous coverage. Radio propagation parameters, velocity of the user, distance between the user, and access point are the key factors that affect the throughput and the amount of information downloaded from such sparse coverage-based wireless networks. To evaluate the performance of such wireless communication networks analytically the impact of above mentioned factors can be modeled with simplified relationship model such as received signal strength versus distance or signal to noise ratio versus throughput. In the paper, we exploit the relationship between throughput and distance and develop two throughput distance relationship models to evaluate the performance of multirate wireless networks. These two throughput distance relationship models are used in calculation of average throughput as well as downloaded file size. Numerical values are presented for the IEEE 802.11n standard. The numerical results verify that the new proposed technique can be used as an alternative to the simulations to evaluate the performance of sparse coverage-based wireless networks.