Characterizing User Activity in WiFi Networks: University Campus and Urban Area Case Studies

Abstract

In this paper we investigate and characterize user activity in WiFi networks by analyzing and comparing the behavior of users that connect to two public WiFi networks, one of them deployed in a University campus and the other in a major urban area. We characterize WiFi network user activity based on two main features, namely: time users stay connected to Access Points and Access Point load. Overall, the main contributions of our work are as follows: (1) to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study comparing user activity in two different scenarions, i.e., a University campus WiFi network and an urban WiFi network; (2) our results validate previously observed characteristics of user behavior in WiFi networks, as well as unveil new behavior patterns, such as the fact that users on campus tend to stay connected to the network for longer periods of time when compared to users in an urban area; and (3) our work is the first study to formally test and validate the hypothesis that association times in WiFi networks follows a power law and to estimate the power-law's tail index.