Have you ever wonder what is it like when the data flowing through the in a Local Area Network? The traffic characteristics of connecting computers together by cables are well investigated and documented since it first rose from the horizon more than 30 years ago: it exhibits fractal characteristics which is not found in apparently similar voice traffic in telephone system, due to the fact that ‘bursting’ data packets transmitted over it.

The wireless LAN(802.11x) is gaining substantial popularity, thanks to it flexibility, portability and the end of unwinding the tangled wires. The emerging network peripheral with wireless capacity shines light on this forgotten legend of data traffic again.

We will measure, compare and investigate the data traffic of wireline and wireless LAN. We aim to draw a variety of conclusions on the similarities and differences between them and find out the reasons for relationships; on the identification of the data traffic bottleneck and the explanation of these limitations in wireline and wireless; on the search of a good model for traffics of different LANs.

The project involves establishing an Ethernet and WiFi LAN and collecting the data packets transmitting over it. We make use of different UNIX and Matlab tools to arrange the collected data and investigate the characteristics of the traffics. From these analyses we hope to discover some interesting discrepancies, find out the reasons of them and possibly to improve them using each other’s strengths.

Wireless LAN starts to get wide acceptance but eventually it will have a complimentary rather than a competing or substituting role in computer networking. With the better understanding of the data traffics over wire or air, we can predict the performance better and thus more effectively design and implement an appropriate network.

Pui Lam Bernard Fok, Dr Darryl Veitch, Kwai Shing Copernicus Wong, Man Fung Martin Leung