Parametric Evaluation of IAPP using Software Access Point and Hardware Access Point

Abstract

User mobility in the wireless data networks is increasing because of advancement in the networking and computing technologies. In Large scale IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) deployments, supporting user and devices mobility is a critical issue, continuous transmission connectivity is highly desirable for most of the networks and its applications. It has been generally seen, in the distribution environment user of one access point moves to another access point and both AP’s are of different vendor than the support for the multi-vendor access point interoperability is highly recommended to have a seamless data transmission and fast handoff. In order to ensure all relevant information is delivered to the correct AP to which the station is associated, an Inter Access Point Protocol is required. This protocol enables multiple AP to communicate and pass information regarding the location of associated stations. This thesis is on the setting up of a small home network. Instead of affording the costly hardware, one can use freeware software in Linux to build Software Access Point in a personal desktop/Laptop as well as measures its performance against Hardware Access Point on a number of relevant metrics.