An Analysis on Super Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Coexistence in Urban and Rural Areas

Abstract

Super Wi-Fi is a Wi-Fi-like network built upon TV white spaces (TVWS) ex ploiting cognitive radio (CR) techniques. Super Wi-Fi is expected to ach ieve larger coverage than today's Wi-Fi thanks to its superior propagati on characteristics, while suffering from smaller bandwidth compared to W i-Fi (6--8 MHz versus 20 MHz) which limits its network capacity. Therefo re, it has been a common belief that Super Wi-Fi is only suitable for co verage enhancement and not desirable for high data-rate networks. Howeve r, there is a lack of studies to confirm such a belief via rigorous comp arison of the network capacities of Super Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi. To fill the g ap, this paper performs a thorough study on the downlink capacity of a S uper Wi-Fi network coexisting with a Wi-Fi network. Capacity comparisoni n the scenario with a single Super Wi-Fi AP and a single Wi-Fi AP reveal s that Super Wi-Fi can outperform Wi-Fi at the outskirts ofthe Wi-Fi's c overage and channel bonding makes Super Wi-Fi more preferable. In additi on, capacity comparison in the scenario with aSuper Wi-Fi network and a Wi-Fi network each consisting of multiple APs has shown that Super Wi-F i can effectively mitigate Wi-Fi'soutage in urban areas and can signific antly outperform Wi-Fi in rural areas.