Evaluation of Wireless Fidelity Performance in Nigeria’s Mobile Networks

Abstract

This work focused on the Wireless Fidelity performance evaluation in Nigeria using mobile networks. The existing Wireless Fidelity System (Wi-Fi) from three different networks (MTN, 9MOBILE, and GLO) were characterized to determine the throughput, latency, and packet loss. Enugu State University of Science and Technology Exxon Mobil Laboratory was used as a case study. Ten laptop devices connected to the networks were installed with NetLimiter Software to capture the traffic statistics. The same data size of 29.12MB was downloaded from the YouTube website for three months to obtain the average network performance parameters as a result of the daily variations of the received signal strength. The result showed that there was a high decrease in data throughput, an increase in latency, and packet loss as the connected user's increases. Although out of three different networks used, MTN got the best network performance. Wi-Fi network utilizes the already congested radio waves. Other frequencies such as Visible Light Spectrum can complement with it to yield high data speed communication.