SAP: Smart Access Point with seamless load balancing multiple interfaces

Author

Chen, Xi ; Zhao, Yue ; Peck, Brian ; Qiao, Daji

Author_Institution

Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA, USA

fYear

2012

fDate

25-30 March 2012

Firstpage

1458

Lastpage

1466

Abstract

Providing adequate Wi-Fi services to meet user demand in densely populated environments has been a fundamental challenge for Wi-Fi networks. In this paper, we explore the emerging OAMI (One-AP-Multiple-Interface) architecture and propose a unique solution called SAP (Smart Access Point). SAP takes full advantage of the OAMI architecture to provide seamless handoff experience to users, while smartly balancing the network load across multiple interfaces based on users´ time-varying traffic load conditions. Moreover, we define a Traffic Fulfillment (TF) performance metric to quantify the user experience and aid in association scheduling. SAP is an AP-only solution that requires trivial network modifications and is backwards compatible with legacy 802.11 stations. We have implemented SAP in the MadWifi device driver and demonstrated its effectiveness via experiments.

Keywords

device drivers; mobility management (mobile radio); resource allocation; telecommunication traffic; user interfaces; wireless LAN; AP-only solution; MadWifi device driver; OAMI architecture; One-AP-multiple interface; SAP; Wi-Fi service network; association scheduling; densely populated environment; legacy 802.11 station; seamless handoff experience; seamless network load balancing multiple interface; smart access point; traffic fulfillment performance metric; trivial network modification; user experience; user time-varying traffic load condition;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

INFOCOM, 2012 Proceedings IEEE

Conference_Location

Orlando, FL

ISSN

0743-166X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-0773-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/INFCOM.2012.6195511

Filename

6195511