The availability and low cost of 802.11b wireless networking products have
encouraged a rapid growth in deployments of wireless LANs. As the use of
powerful portable computing devices (laptops, PDAs) with WLAN adapters
becomes a common expectation, the ability of wireless LANs to cater for large
numbers of users with high bandwidth requirements is an increasingly
important design consideration. To date, most of the deployed large WLANs
were designed for continuous radio coverage, not for high densities of
bandwidth-hungry users. In this paper, we report on the results of an
experimental and analytical study specifically addressing the problem of
designing high density WLANs based on the 802.11b technology. We
conclude that in the design of high-density WLANs, due to the limited control
over transmission ranges of the wireless devices, particular attention must be
paid to means by which the effect of exposed terminals in the network can be
reduced.