Vehicular client roaming and location-based handoff through multiple WLAN APs in a container terminal

摘要

This paper reports on measurement results for the simultaneous use of multiple WLAN APs in a large area. We describe some problems of applying legacy IEEE 802.11 WLAN technologies to a freight container terminal as a special application example. We begin by describing the characteristics of IT infrastructures in a container terminal environment, and examine S/W application requirements and work processes in a container terminal. One of the key problems based on clients' complaints is frequent network disconnections. To find the cause of this problem, we observe the characteristics of service clients and collect the raw network data from actual measurements in a container terminal. We transform the collected raw data into meaningful secondary data and analyze the results. Based on our analyses, we suggest several candidate solutions to mitigate the frequent network disconnections and enhance the network performance. We perform one of the suggestions location-based handoff, for evaluation.