Empirical Study on Local Similarity of Spectrum Occupancy in the 2.4 GHz ISM Band

The 2.4 GHz frequency band is used by various devices, including WiFi, microwave ovens and Bluetooth. For WiFi devices, it is desirable to have information about occupancy of the spectrum available to select optimal channels and to predict link performance. As only few devices are capable of acquiring such information, devices may share it. However, using these information only makes sense if the measurements are made by a device that is nearby. In this paper, we suggest using information about present WiFi devices to assess proximity. We present the design and results of an extensive indoor study carried out to assess locality of spectrum occupancy and usefulness of the described nearness measure.