The effect of terminal movement to the physical layer performance of the IEEE 802.11b wireless LAN systems in simulated UMTS vehicular channel

Abstract

Wireless local area network (WLAN) systems are typically designed to provide fixed or nomadic access. Using WLAN systems for military purposes raises the question of how WLAN terminals can be utilized in a fully mobile outdoor environment. In these environments, there typically exists multipath propagation with a large delay spread in the radio channel. This paper investigates the effect of terminal movement on the physical layer performance and capacity of IEEE 802.11b WLAN systems in a realistic outdoor mobile environment. Several wireless network interface cards are measured in laboratory conditions using a simulated radio channel. The measurement results indicate that WLAN systems can operate in mobile outdoor environment up to a certain mobile speed, and there are significant differences between equipment from product vendors