Simulating poor data/wifi reception

Goi

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
6,766
7
91
Hi,

I'm trying to test an Android app's network behavior when the network is bad. I know I can use adb to throttle the bandwidth that Android emulator has, but I'd like to test on actual hardware. Is there a way to simulate poor data reception, or a poor wifi connection in a reliable and repeatable way?

I was thinking with wifi, perhaps there's some way of throttling the phone's bandwidth, and perhaps I could stand further away from the access point, but with data, am I dependent on my telco's base station and atmospheric conditions at that exact moment?

Thanks.
 

seepy83

Platinum Member
Nov 12, 2003
2,132
3
71
Hi,

I'm trying to test an Android app's network behavior when the network is bad. I know I can use adb to throttle the bandwidth that Android emulator has, but I'd like to test on actual hardware. Is there a way to simulate poor data reception, or a poor wifi connection in a reliable and repeatable way?

I was thinking with wifi, perhaps there's some way of throttling the phone's bandwidth, and perhaps I could stand further away from the access point, but with data, am I dependent on my telco's base station and atmospheric conditions at that exact moment?

Thanks.

Put a microwave in between your phone and your Wireless Router/Access Point and turn it on.
 

Goi

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
6,766
7
91
Is there any other way of achieving more fine-grained control?
 

seepy83

Platinum Member
Nov 12, 2003
2,132
3
71
Is there any other way of achieving more fine-grained control?

What exactly are you looking to accomplish? Your OP said that you want to know how the application will behave when the network is bad, and Microwaves interfering with WiFi is a real-world scenario that can cause network interference. Turn the microwave on and you have interference. Turn it off, and interference goes away.

Another way to create interference? Put a few APs in the same room that are all using the same Channel and have your phone on one and other devices using the others.

Want to simulate network congestion? You could probably have a dozen devices connect to the same Access Point and have them all transferring large amounts of data.
 

Goi

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
6,766
7
91
I'm trying to compare performance of a few VoIP apps subjected to varying network quality, and I'm trying to make it quantifiable and hopefully repeatable as well. I'm not sure if there are any industry standard benchmarking suites or methods, does anyone know of any good ways of doing so?