CONDITIONS AND AVAILABILITY OF WiFi IN HOSTELS

RESEARCH REPORT

Submitted by

HARITH MANOJ (M230384EC)

ROBIN RAJEEV DANIEL (M230477EC)

In partial fulfillment for the award of the degree of

MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY
IN
MICROELECTRONICS AND VLSI DESIGN

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CALICUT
NIT CAMPUS P.O., KOZHIKODE, KERALA, INDIA 673601
DECEMBER 2023
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to extend my sincere gratitude to everyone who has helped us to com-
plete this research project. We sincerely thank our faculty Dr. Praveen Sankaran and
Head of the Department Dr. Jaikumar M. GWe thank our peers and seniors for having
informative conversations regarding the topic.

HARITH MANOJ
ROBIN RAJEEV DANIEL
 DECLARATION

We hereby declare that this submission is our own work and that, to the best of our knowl-
edge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person
nor material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of
the university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgement
has been made in the text.

HARITH MANOJ Signature .............................

ROBIN RAJEEV DANIEL Signature .............................

 National Institute of Technology Calicut
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering

This is to certify that the Report entitled, “CONDITIONS AND AVAILABILITY OF

WiFi IN HOSTELS” submitted by Mr. HARITH MANOJ, and Mr. ROBIN RAJEEV
DANIEL to the National Institute of Technology Calicut towards partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the award of the Degree of Master of Technology in Electronics and
Communication Engineering is a bonafide record of the work carried out by them under
my supervision.

Coordinator:
Dr. Praveen Sankaran Dr. Jaikumar M. G.
Associate Professor Associate Professor & Head of Department

Date:10-12-2023
(Office seal)
 ABSTRACT

WiFi accessibility has become essential for easy communication and information ac-
cess in a world where digital connectivity rules. This report explores the ubiquity and
effects of WiFi in Hostels. Even though WiFi is now a necessary resource, the report rec-
ognizes and contemplates recurring issues, including dead zones, interference etc. that
prevent it from being used to its full potential. The research aims to provide insights into
improving WiFi availability. WiFi accessibility envisions a time when seamless connec-
tivity empowers communities, organizations, and people in general. Different construc-
tion materials used in the hostel building cause significant losses on the wireless signals
along it’s propagation path. The losses due to such interference can be seen as reduction
of range of WiFi access points, increased latency and decreased download and upload
speeds.It is necessary to have a high speed internet connectivity which
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures iii

1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.2 Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.3 Problem Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.4 Problems encountered when using Internet service in the hostels . . . 2

2 WiFi IN HOSTELS 3

2.1 Factors affecting WiFi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2.2 The Impact of Building Structures on WiFi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 LITERATURE SURVEY 7

4 WiFi TECHNOLOGY 9

5 WORK DONE 11

6 EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS AND RESULTS 13

6.1 Parameters Obtained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

6.2 Comparing network speed inside and outside the room . . . . . . . . 14

6.3 Comparing network speed with distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

i
7 CONCLUSION 16

REFERENCES 17
 LIST OF FIGURES

4.1 WDS bridge through a modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

5.1 Floorplan used for research review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

6.1 Network speed inside the room near to the door . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

6.2 Network speed inside the room near to wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

6.3 Network speed near router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

6.4 Network speed near router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

6.5 Network speed at a distance 3m from router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

6.6 Network speed at a distance 6m from router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

6.7 Network speed at a distance 8m from router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

iii
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

For students who travel far from home to study, student hostels may aid by giving a place
to stay. The hostels give its guests the basic amenities they need to live well while they
are away from home. The internet accessibility in hostels for students was the subject
of this study. The internet is really helpful for studying since it allows access to a vast
amount of information.

1.2 Problem Statement

Persistent challenges like inconsistent access, network congestion, and security vulnera-
bilities hinder the seamless and reliable utilization of WiFi in the hostels.

1.3 Problem Definition

In the modern era of digital connections, having access to WiFi is expected in everyday
life. However, constant problems, including erratic connectivity, network overcrowding,
and security flaws, impede the smooth and dependable use of WiFi in a variety of con-
texts. In order to maximize the effectiveness and connectedness of people, organizations,
and communities in a world where connectivity is becoming more and more important, it
is imperative that these issues be resolved in order to guarantee widespread, high-quality
WiFi access.
1.4 Problems encountered when using Internet service in the hostels

1. Frequent time outs while accessing the Internet due to too many connections and
sometimes one has to wait until late when other students are not online.

2. Fluctuation of the existing connection.

3. Poor speed of the intrnet .

4. Only limited routers in a floor in the hostel.

2
 CHAPTER 2

WiFi IN HOSTELS

Widespread adoption and integration of WiFi technology within college hostel environ-
ments, considering it an essential and fundamental service for the residents.

• Ubiquitous Connectivity

College hostels, as residential facilities for students, recognize the increasing im-
portance of internet connectivity in the lives of their residents.

• Academic Requirements

Students residing in college hostels often have academic requirements that involve
online research, virtual classes, and access to educational resources.WiFi facilitates
these academic activities, allowing students to seamlessly engage in their course-
work from the comfort of their hostel rooms.

• Social Connectivity

Beyond academic needs, WiFi enables residents to stay socially connected with
their peers, friends, and family members. Social media, instant messaging, and
video calls are integral to the contemporary social experience, and WiFi supports
these forms of communication.

• Entertainment and Recreation

WiFi in college hostels supports residents in accessing entertainment content such

as streaming services, online gaming, and other recreational activities. It contributes
to a more holistic living experience, providing options for relaxation and leisure.

• Convenience and Flexibility

WiFi offers residents the flexibility to connect multiple devices wirelessly, promot-
ing convenience and ease of use. Residents can use their smartphones, laptops,
tablets, and other WiFi-enabled devices without being restricted by physical cables.
 • Enhanced Living Experience

College hostels understand that providing WiFi is not just a luxury but a necessity
in the modern digital age. It enhances the overall living experience by aligning with
the technological expectations and lifestyles of the current generation of students.

• Competitive Edge

Hostels that offer reliable and high-speed WiFi services gain a competitive edge
in attracting and retaining students. The availability of WiFi becomes a significant
factor for students when choosing their accommodation options.

• Technological Infrastructure

WiFi is considered a foundational element of the technological infrastructure in

college hostels. It complements other technological amenities and services to create
a technologically advanced and student-friendly living environment.

• Adaptation to Modern Trends

Embracing WiFi reflects the hostels’ adaptability to modern technological trends

and their commitment to staying updated with the evolving needs of students.

2.1 Factors affecting WiFi

• Equipment Power Levels

• Construction materials

• Bandwidth

• Number of users

4
2.2 The Impact of Building Structures on WiFi

The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing at an exponential rate for the advancements in
associated technology and connectivity. It is currently a crucial tool for communicating
with society, which is expanding the application of collaborative methods to a wide range
of issues. The majority of human activity is driven by this phenomenon, which is also one
of the strongest arguments for why people are becoming sedentary, indoor-only creatures.
This phenomenon is referred to as Building Internet of Things, or BIoT. According to re-
cent research, some building materials are partially opaque, while others may be more
suitable for wireless signal penetration due to their particular characteristics. Since ar-
chitects are the primary decision-makers when it comes to the final selection of materials
and structures like the ones above, despite their lack of technical background, it is cru-
cial to have them consider such problems and look for answers through multidisciplinary
forums. This will encourage deeper collaboration between the relevant professionals,
further advancing the goal of increasing wireless connectivity in building interiors. From
the point of view of the user, this is an essential requirement since modern users spend
a significant amount of time on these electronic computer gadgets, which call for reli-
able and continuous communication. Therefore, it is evident that the effectiveness of
wireless communication is having a direct impact on building occupants’ happiness, im-
proving user comfort as well as performance. It is become evident that further research
into such topics needs to be done. Given the internet issue, sustainability may be tackled
by examining connection needs and potential conflicts with other social and environ-
mental issues. This means looking at the important relationships, trade-offs with other
issues, such as biodiversity, comfort and health, productivity, etc. Because user groups
are intrinsically linked to the acceptance of sustainability, it is important to evaluate the
acceptance, affordability, and other aspects of connectivity "solutions" available from the
public and private sectors to make sure that any solution selected for a building is in-
clusive and doesn’t worsen current differences between different groups. This human
element is among the most significant sustainability signs.

The influence that different construction materials have on wireless coverage is not
well understood in the construction sector. It is necessary to decide whether a change in

5
the building materials is necessary to comply with construction regulations and enhance
the signal’s efficacy. Certain materials can enhance a home’s heat conductivity, but they
can also interfere with wireless signal transmission, these are trade offs that need to be
deliberated on to take a balanced decision.

6
 CHAPTER 3

LITERATURE SURVEY

Many campus communities can gain from occupancy monitoring in different ways in
an educational environment. This paper examine the room-level performance of WiFi
and beam counters, the two occupancy detection techniques. Based on the installation
and maintenance expenses at the campus level, the results indicate that WiFi detected
occupancy is even more accurate than the occupancy sensed by hardware beam counter
sensors. Also examination on the numbers of WiFi devices that were gathered from cam-
pus over a four-week period, adding context to the occupancy trends and talking about
potential uses that might help the many campus stakeholders that we want to include in
our next work. The research indicates that one practical method of occupancy monitoring
at a big campus is to use metadata from the current WiFi AP network.The comparison of
aproaches give the results on accuracy,privacy,intrusiveness and installation. Although
metadata from WiFi connection logs provide similar performance as the physical sen-
sors and do not incur additional costs as opposed to physical sensors, there are some
shortcomings.One issue is the computational complexity.[1]

The development of short-distance wireless communication technologies and the grow-

ing interest in context-aware ubiquitous environments have led to a significant increase
in the attention given to location-based applications and services in recent times.Pattern
matching-based algorithms perform better than distance-based algorithms in the major-
ity of cases when comparing location precision, real-time capability, and flexibility for
various indoor conditions.[2]

Since the Internet’s inception, technology has advanced from being largely utilized for
research and information sharing to being a more all-encompassing platform that serves
the needs of business, education, and entertainment. With a wide range of options avail-
able to us, including dedicated Internet connections, high-speed broadband, and simple
dialup service, technology has significantly advanced to meet the needs of the bandwidth-
hungry online medium.
 The use of Internet services in postsecondary institutions was the main topic of the lit-
erature study. Present attempts to use the Internet in higher education are guided by two
different models. The first strategy uses the Internet to develop "better, faster, cheaper"
copies of today’s courses and curriculum by enhancing the current post-secondary educa-
tion forms and structures. The cost and other barriers to On-Campus Internet instruction
(the technology is new, very expensive, and possibly too threatening to existing academic
structures and traditions) are part of the second, more radical approach, which sees the
Internet as instrumental to a fundamental change in the processes and organizational
structure of post-secondary teaching and learning.[3]

Different building materials suffer large losses throughout the propagation route when
exposed to wireless signals.A radio frequency (RF) circuit or device’s ability to create
wireless signals is influenced by a number of characteristics that can be classified as
intrinsic or extrinsic. The elements that have an internal impact on the wireless signals
within the sources where they are created are referred to as the intrinsic characteristics.
RF equipment, such as routers and RF antennas operating at frequencies of 900–1800
MHz, 2100 MHz, and 2400 MHz, frequently impacts this situation. Thermal noise and
brief noise are a couple such examples. The term "extrinsic properties" describes the
characteristics of wireless signals that, as soon as they are diverted from their origins,
begin to alter them externally in relation to their surroundings The complex arrangement
of the components causes a shift in signal intensity, losses, and user experience. This
study examined the WiFi (2.4GHz) signal in an enclosure consisting of three different
species of wood, measuring 0.24 mx 0.20m x 0.16 m.[4]

8
 CHAPTER 4

WiFi TECHNOLOGY

WiFi is a group of wireless network protocols that are based on the IEEE 802.11 fam-
ily of standards. These protocols are frequently used for Internet access and local area
networking of devices, enabling radio waves to be utilized to send data between adjacent
digital devices. The most popular computer networks are these ones, which are used all
over the world in homes and small offices to connect devices and offer Internet access to
guests via wireless routers and access points in public spaces like coffee shops, hotels,
libraries, and airports. WiFi, which stands for Wireless Fidelity, is a technology that uses
radio waves to enable wireless data transmission between electronic devices. It makes
it possible for technology, including personal computers, smartphones, tablets, and other
gadgets, to connect wirelessly to LANs and the internet without the use of physical con-
nections. A set of wireless local area networking (WLAN) technologies derived from the
IEEE 802.11 standard family.

There are several WiFi channels that are utilized for data transmission and reception
in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. The bandwidth and speed will be impacted if your
neighbor’s router uses an overlapping channel or the same wireless channel as yours.

The WiFi logo on electrical devices, like the Tenda logo, shows the WiFi signal
strength but does not provide a measurement of the signal intensity. You may see how
much specific barrier effect your signal by knowing the strength measurement. The
strength of WiFi may be measured in a variety of ways. The easiest and most popular
attenuation technique is to use dBm (decibel-milliwatt) measurements. Negative values
are used to indicate dBm, and the signal intensity can vary from -30 dBm to -90 dBm

• -30 dBm: Represents the best WiFi signal possible. It’s usually achieved by standing
next to the WiFi router.

• -50 dBm: Anything within this range will experience an excellent signal.
• -60 dBm: Reliable signal strength.

• -70 dBm: Not a strong signal.

• -80 dBm: Unreliable signal strength.

• -90 dBm: A wireless connection is near impossible.

The closer you are to -30 dBm, the strength of the signal will be increasing.

Figure 4.1: WDS bridge through a modem

10
 CHAPTER 5

WORK DONE

1. Checked the speed of Internet from WiFi router in hostel with change in distance
from the router.

2. Compare the WiFi speed inside and outside the room of the hostel.

Description of WiFi we used for experimentation

Protocol: WiFi 4 (802.11n)

Security type: Open

Qualcomm QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Adapter

Network band: 2.4 GHz

Link speed (Receive/Transmit): 300/150 (Mbps)

 The figure below shows the floorplan of the area where we done our experimentation.
The floor consist of 46 rooms of which 10 rooms are unoccupied. The total number of
residents there are about 180.There are 10 wifi access points are there in the floor.

Figure 5.1: Floorplan used for research review

12
 CHAPTER 6

EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

6.1 Parameters Obtained

The parameters used in this research are defined below:

1. Ping
Ping is a network utility used to measure round trip time of a message from the client
to host, and from host back to client. This value provides insight into the latency of the
network which is necessary to be low for smooth video or audio live streaming or con-
ferences.
2. Upload speed
This involves the interaction from the user terminal to the remote system Base Transceiver
Station which is set-up for uploading data It is measured in (Mbps).
3. Download Speed
This involves the interaction from the user terminal to the remote system Base Transceiver
Station (BTS) which is set-up for downloading data. The opposite of the Upload Speed
is done with the Download Speed. Its unit is measured in (Mbps).
6.2 Comparing network speed inside and outside the room

Figure 6.1: Network speed inside the room near to the door

Figure 6.2: Network speed inside the room near to wall

Figure 6.3: Network speed near router

The speed test is conducted using "Speedtest by Ookla". It helps to found the network
speed from the router with respect to the distance.We can see that the speed is very high
when the system is nearer to router.From the above results Figure 6.1 shows the network
speed near to the door,So that the material through which the WiFi signals transmitted is
wood. But in Figure 6.2 shows the results when network is tested near to a wall. ie the
WiFi signals reach slowly.

14
6.3 Comparing network speed with distance

Figure 6.4: Network speed near router

Figure 6.5: Network speed at a distance 3m from router

Figure 6.6: Network speed at a distance 6m from router

Figure 6.7: Network speed at a distance 8m from router

As the distance from the router increases the network speed decreases.Beyond a thresh-
old distance an abrupt decrease in the network speed is found.

15
 CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSION

WiFi metadata should be used for hostel occupancy monitoring to get visibility of all the
spaces of which we are interested in obtaining real time occupancy.Future developments
in building techniques and materials could be driven by an improvement in signal trans-
mission within them. Materials like metals, concrete walls , plasters, tiles etc blocks the
WiFi signals to an extent. So a better construction material is need for the construction of
hostels for better internet access.To reduce the interference, we can change the channel
on almost all WiFi routers. Furthermore, dual-band routers enable frequency switching
between 2.4 GHz and 5GHz. Network interference will thus be significantly decreased.
By the introduction of smart buildings we can implement WiFi network having greater
link speed. We found that hostels in NIT Calicut have sufficient WiFi access within all
common areas and hallways but have reduced signal strength and access speeds within
rooms. This can be rectified by using more number of access points or by using different
construction materials which may not be practical.
REFERENCES

[1] Iresha Pasquel Mohottige, Thanchanok Sutjarittham, Nixon Raju, Hassan Habibi
Gharakheili and Vijay Sivaraman."Role of Campus WiFi Infrastructure for Occu-
pancy Monitoring in a Large University". IEEE Trans 2018

[2] Yubin Xu, Mu Zhou, Lin Ma. "WiFi Indoor Location Determination Via ANFIS
with PCA methods". IEEE Trans 2009.

[3] Khakata Esther Nyokabi, Ateya Ismail Lukandu "Evaluation of the availability of
the Internet in Student’s hostels: Case Study of hostels around Strathmore Univer-
sity, Nairobi, Kenya".International Journal of Educational Research and Technology
Volume 3 Issue 2 June 2012: 59 - 75

[4] M. Ahmed, R. A. Buhari and A. Musa "Impact of Household Construction Materials

on WiFi Signal"

[5] Cornelius Toh,Sian Lun Lau, "Indoor Localisation using Existing WiFi Infrastruc-
ture." IEEE Trans 2016

17