Indoor wireless access point placement

Abstract

Wireless communication technological developments have recently led to an increase in the development and use of portable wireless devices. Unlike wired devices, devices equipped with a wireless network card do not restrict mobility but tend to experience lack of precise coverage zones as the radio waves emitted from the wireless access point lose their signal strength as they propagate. Simulation tools can generate radio propagation maps that can be used to establish the power received at a particular location within the environment and thus be able to determine the optimum placement of the wireless access points. This dissertation analyses the implementation of IEEE802.l lb/g wireless access points operating in the 2.4GHz bandwidth within indoor environments, particularly offices. An accurate modeling campaign was used to simulate the propagation characteristics of radio waves. In this work, the shoot and bounce ray tracing method, based on the theory of geometric optics, was applied. Each of the 100,000 rays launched from the wireless access point are traced along their path as they travel through different media and impinge on objects until they either leave the office or else their power is below the predetermined power threshold. The total power present at each location within the room is calculated allowing for the creation of propagation maps. For each office model, the wireless access point has been placed in three different locations within the office and propagation maps have been computed for each circumstance. These maps were evaluated and the characteristics leading to low signal areas were identified. Such characteristics help in determining the optimum placement of a wireless access point within indoor environments.