Hardware Dependency Analysis of Wi-Fi Signal Strength Measurement Tools

The WiFi is the popularly used Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology for internet based communication within and outside the campus of many small business units and educational institutions. In many networks there are some places where the signal strength is too weak. These areas are called as WiFi dead zones. If any device enters into the dead zone data get hampered due to the weak signal strength in these area. The dead zones can be removed or minimized by measuring the signal strength by WiFi signal strength measurement tools and reorienting the positions of the Access Points. However, the performance and measurement accuracy of these tools dependent on the hardware to certain extent. In this paper the hardware dependency of the two wifi measuring tools has been presented. Extensive experimentation has been conducted in the wiFi network of VIT, Pune campus.