SAP: Smart Access Point with seamless load balancing multiple interfaces

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.