Collaborative wireless local area network

Abstract

In traditional infrastructural wireless local area network (WLAN), the mobile node (MN) makes the decision of choosing an access point (AP). The MN creates a list of APs in range along with the received signal strength indicator (RSSI). It then solely uses the RSSI as a decision metric for selecting an AP to connect to as this is the only information available at the MN. We argue that a MN is not the correct entity in WLAN for making the choice of an AP when many APs are available as it does not have the complete view of the environment. Secondly, choosing an AP solely on the basis of RSSI is not an efficient algorithm. This can lead to concentration of MNs at single AP resulting in a decreased average throughput for every MN associated to that AP. In this thesis, we propose to transfer this decision to the AP in a transparent manner. While our solution exists for single administrative domain with a centralized controller, we propose a completely distributed architecture for personal WLANs where APs select to serve MNs based on the MN concentration, network load, throughput and effect of serving a new MN on the network. The APs in different networks collaborate among one another in a completely decentralized manner to provide unified network access to MNs with focus on maximizing the system capacity. The broadcast nature of wireless is used in an intelligent manner to select dynamic uplink and downlink paths between APs and MNs.