PLFC: The Packet Length Fuzzy Controller to Improve the Performance of WLAN under the Interference of Microwave Oven

Abstract

In this paper, we have investigated the effects of microwave ovens over the IEEE 802.11 FHSS (Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum) wireless LAN card. The measured MAC Frame Error Rate (FER) and UDP Packer Error Rate (PER) are affected by the microwave ovens. From these measurement results we know that the performance of some channels within the IEEE 802.11 FHSS wireless LAN card can be seriously deteriorated. Furthermore, decreasing the packet length would improve the transmission performance from the PER measurement results. Therefore, we design a novel fuzzy controller to dynamically adjust the packet length to against the interference from microwave oven. Simulation results show that the designed fuzzy controller can effectively improve the transmission performance in terms of throughput.