Reflecting QoS of low-cost multi-provider municipal WiFi on commercial 3.G mobile data and ISM spectrum occupancy

Abstract

We present two measurement campaigns reflecting the end-user QoS of a large municipal WiFi (IEEE 802.11 WLAN) network on the end-user QoS of three commercial 3.5G (HSPA) mobile data networks and on the spectrum occupancy of the 2.4 GHz ISM band. Our study shows that municipal provisioning of public wireless Internet access with IEEE 802.11 WLAN technology to achieve end-user QoS comparable to that of 3.5G mobile data networks is feasible and cost-efficient, despite the poor overall spectrum utilization of the ISM band by the IEEE 802.11 WLAN technology.