Throughput measurements for 802.11a WLAN using Intel PRO/Wireless 5000 LAN
Products
Experimental setup for throughput measurements
The goal is to initiate a TCP session between the mobile terminal and the server via
access point and measure the throughput achieved at different distances between the
mobile terminal and the access point
HUB
Wireless Access Point
RJ-45 Cat 5 Ethernet cables
Server
Mobile
terminal
Figure 1 Test Bed for throughput measurements for 802.11a Wireless LAN
Iperf ver 1.1.1 is used in the measurements of throughput. Both client and server version
of this software has been installed on the mobile terminal and the server respectively. For
further
details
about
the
software
and
its
features,
please
refer
http://dast.nlanr.net/Projects/Iperf/
The following steps are then followed.
Basic setup
 Mount the access point on a non-metal platform and power up the access point.
 Connect the access point and the server running Iperf using Ethernet cables via a hub.
 The default IP address of the access point is 192.0.2.1 255.255.0.0. Configure the
server and the mobile terminal with IP addresses in the same subnet (say 192.0.2.2
255.255.0.0 and 192.0.2.3 255.255.0.0 respectively)
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

You can administratively monitor the access point by pointing your web browser to
http://192.0.2.1. You may choose to leave the default settings unchanged.
Once the IP addresses have been configured, you may use ping to test the network
connectivity.
Mark distances from the access point (say at 10 feet, 20 feet, 30 feet etc) where the
mobile terminal is later positioned to determine throughput.
Running Iperf at the server
 Start Iperf at the server using the command line. (The command to run Iperf in the
server mode with a TCP window size of 256K is iperf –s –w 256K). The window
size is set to 256 K so as to ramp up quickly.
Running Iperf at the client
 In order to start the GUI, use the command jperf.bat. This will bring up the GUI as
shown in the shapshot below.
Figure 2 Iperf at the client side






Enter the server IP address instead of the server specified above.
Enter the TCP window size to match that at the server (type in 256K and not just 256)
Other options may be selected or may be left unchanged.
Output format may be selected to be Mbits
Once these settings are done, keep the mobile terminal at increasing distances from
the access point and click “Run Test”
Measure the throughput at different distances and take average