Modeling and Predictability Analysis on Channel Spectrum Status over Heavy Wireless LAN Traffic Environment

Using the real wireless spectrum occupancy status in 2.4 and 5 GHz bands collected at a railway station as representative of a heavy wireless LAN (WLAN) traffic environment, this paper studies the modeling of durations of busy/idle (B/I) status and its predictability based on predictability theory. We first measure and model the channel status in the heavy traffic environment over almost all of the WLAN channels at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands in a busy (rush hour) period and non-busy period. Then, using two selected channels at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, we analyze the upper bound (UB) and lower bound (LB) of predictability of the busy/idle durations based on predictability theory. The analysis shows that the LB predictability of durations can be easily increased by changing their probability distribution. Based on this property, we introduce the data categorization (DC) method. By categorizing the busy/idle durations into different streams, the proposed data categorization can improve the prediction performance of some streams with large LB predictability, even if it employs a simple low-complexity auto-regressive (AR) predictor.