Multilayer Measurement Methodology with Open-Source Tools for Evaluating IEEE 802.11ad Communication Quality

Abstract

IEEE 802.11ad is the practical networking technology widely used as a 60 GHz millimeter-wave communication method ahead of Beyond 5G and 6G networks. However, compared with the existing Wi-Fi systems that use 2.4/5 GHz, it is difficult to manage the communication quality due to the high carrier frequency, e.g., the signal strength suddenly and significantly degrades due to various factors such as distance and obstacles. For IEEE 802.11ad to be widely adopted, a simple and inexpensive measurement method is needed for non-specialists, including end users, to build and manage a stable IEEE 802.11ad network. In addition, easy-to-understand performance indicators are required. This paper then proposes a multilayer measurement methodology with open-source tools, i.e., iperf3, ping, and iw, for IEEE 802.11ad communication. Our methodology selects indicators necessary to evaluate IEEE 802.11ad communication performance. The tools iperf3 and ping mainly evaluate the IP layer indicators such as throughput, jitter, packet retries, packet loss, and RTT. On the other hand, the RSSI and Tx bitrates of the iw results are used to investigate the wireless link quality. Through empirical results with our measurement methodology in real environments, we show that in addition to traditional indicators such as through-put, the Tx bitrate output by iw can be a new indicator for understanding the IEEE 802.11ad communication quality.