Analysis of a mixed-use urban wifi network: when metropolitan becomes neapolitan

While WiFi was initially designed as a local-area access network, mesh networking technologies have led to increasingly expansive deployments of WiFi networks. In urban environments, the WiFi mesh frequently supplements a number of existing access technologies, including wired broadband networks, 3G cellular, and commercial WiFi hotspots. It is an open question what role city-wide WiFi deployments play in the increasingly diverse access network spectrum. We study the usage of the Google WiFi network deployed in Mountain View, California, and find that usage naturally falls into three classes, based almost entirely on client device type. Moreover, each of these classes of use has significant geographic locality, following the distribution of residential, commercial, and transportation areas of the city. Finally, we find a diverse set of mobility patterns that map well to the archetypal use cases for traditional access technologies.