WIRELESS PROJECT "signal strength"

Hi Guys,

I'm in the middle of starting a project in wireless network study for a masters degree. I'm hoping that I could get some assistance from all you experts out there. I plan to do a research to check the wireless throughput, delay and packet lost if we transfer the UDP packet from 1 host to server. This would basically be a client-server kind of connectivity. To visualize the connectivity, 1 wireless host (laptop) will associate to an AP. The AP will use an ethernet connection to a switch and the switch in turn to a server (normal PC). Server and host will use same OS, WinXP Pro SP2.

With this setup.. What I'm trying to research is the significant impact if we reduce/increase the signal strength on the wireless client (laptop) i.e the impact if we increase the signal strength from 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%,60%.. until 100% for the built in wireless adapter in the specific host. While the AP will continuously transmit the 802.11g signal (only 802.11g will be used in this study) in normal condition (100% transmit and received mode). I also plan to change the 1st AP with another AP (of different brand and chipset).

What I plan to achieve in this project is to find whether throughput,
Delay and packet lost would provide significant impact if we reduce the signal strength of a specific host. Furthermore what can I conclude if we are using different brand and chipset for specific AP. Does different chipsets contribute to the different throughput, delay and packet lost performance or not?..


That is a bit about my research. I need some opinion and suggestion
To complete this research. Please feel free to ask for more information. Some questions:

1. Do any of the latest laptop with built in wireless adapter are capable to do the changes to the signal strength i.e to set the signal to 0%,10%,20%,30%... until 100%? I believe we can set this on the AP but how about the wireless adapter in the laptop? Do I need a special tools/applications? What kind of software tools are capable to tweak the wireless adapter to do the mentioned function?

2.What are the best tools to check/measure the throughput, delay and packet lost? What I have now is omnipeek, wireshark and netstumbler. Do you know any software that can perform better that above software (and free)?

Appreciate if someone that read this could help and guide me to complete this research by providing the necessary steps that should be taken for the method and analyze the findings.. FYI, Im a student and due to budget constraint I try to avoid using additional hardware or software that need to be purchased. Thanks