Only 20% of Wi-Fi Bandwidth Available in Busy Areas

Research underway in the Netherlands could put somewhat of a wet blanket on carriers’ increasingly ambitious plans for offloading mobile data traffic onto Wi-Fi in congested areas.

In areas that have numerous wireless networks, the bandwidth available on an individual Wi-Fi connection for actual data traffic may be as low as 20% of total bandwidth, reports website Phys.org, citing research conducted by the University of Twente’s CTIT research institute. “The more devices that are simultaneously using a network, and the more active networks there are, the greater the amount of bandwidth consumed by various control mechanisms, rather than by actual data traffic,” explained Phys.org — a science, research and technology news service — in the post. As a result, it is becoming less of an exception and more of a rule for Wi-Fi connections to receive only half of their advertised speed, the researchers said. The results of the University of Twente research are expected to be published soon in the Journal of Green Engineering Special Issue on Cognitive Radio.