abstract.tex

\begin{abstract}

During the one minute it takes to read this abstract, two billion smartphones
worldwide will perform billions of \wifi{} channel scans recording the
signal strength of nearby \wifi{} Access Points (APs). Yet despite this
ongoing planetary-scale wireless network measurement, few systematic
efforts are made today to recover this potentially valuable data.

In this paper we ask the question: ``Are the smartphone channel scans useful in
monitoring enterprise \wifi{} networks?'' More specifically, can these
client-side measurements provide new insights compared to the AP-side
measurements that enterprise \wifi{} networks already perform? Beginning with
two \wifi{} scan datasets collected on two large scale smartphone testbeds, we
conduct case studies that show how smartphone channel scans can be used to (1) improve AP
spectrum management, and (2) predict the impact of AP failure or overload. In
each case, a walk on the client side yields valuable insights for network
operators that are otherwise impossible to gain from AP-side measurements,
and together our results demonstrate the value of smartphone channel scans.

\end{abstract}