Wireless Network Environment Evaluation using EDAS Method
Sandeep Rathor, Subhash Chand Agrawal · 2023
Roaming is the ability to switch network connections from one access point to another, which is enabled by Wi-Fi technology. This feature is unique to Wi-Fi environments and is used in various wireless networks. Wi-Fi technology has now become an integral part of wireless communication. It is composed of two main components: the Wi-Fi router that receives signals from the access point, and another router that sends data to the internet using a wired Ethernet connection. Unlike traditional Ethernet-wired networks, Wi-Fi networks do not require network cabling and use infrared or radio frequency technology to transmit data wirelessly. Wireless networks are commonly used by businesses to connect computers within a building. The hub access point serves as the wireless counterpart of the LAN hub, connecting to other components of the wired LAN through a connector. Access points receive and transmit data from all wireless devices within their coverage area. Although they can handle multiple connections between different devices, activating more devices on the access point slows down their operation. Depending on the number and density of walls or floors between the access point and the Wi-Fi network card, multiple access points may be needed to cover a building. To evaluate the performance of different network solutions, several parameters such as cost per byte, total bandwidth, allowed bandwidth, utilization, packet delay, packet jitter, and packet loss are considered. VoIP, streaming, web browsing, and Transmission Control Protocol are analyzed based on these parameters. From this analysis, the EDAS method is identified as the most suitable solution, while the solution with the longest distance from this ideal solution is considered suboptimal. However, this distance comparison does not account for the relative importance of different parameters. The results show that allowed bandwidth is ranked the highest, while packet jitter has the lowest rank.