  Wireless 802.11 links operate in unlicensed spectrum and so must accommodate
other unlicensed transmitters which generate pulsed interference. We propose a
new approach for detecting the presence of pulsed interference affecting 802.11
links, and for estimating temporal statistics of this interference. This
approach builds on recent work on distinguishing collision losses from noise
losses in 802.11 links. When the intervals between interference pulses are
i.i.d., the approach is not confined to estimating the mean and variance of
these intervals but can recover the complete probability distribution. The
approach is a transmitter-side technique that provides per-link information and
is compatible with standard hardware. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the
proposed approach using extensive experimental measurements. In addition to
applications to monitoring, management and diagnostics, the fundamental
information provided by our approach can potentially be used to adapt the frame
durations used in a network so as to increase capacity in the presence of
pulsed interference.
