Title: Wireless LAN planning: a didactical model to optimise the cost and effective payback

Authors: Alexandre Gondran, Alexandre Caminada, Julien Fondrevelle, Oumaya Baala

Addresses: SET Laboratory, UTBM, Belfort Cedex 90010, France. ' SET Laboratory, UTBM, Belfort Cedex 90010, France. ' SET Laboratory, UTBM, Belfort Cedex 90010, France. ' SET Laboratory, UTBM, Belfort Cedex 90010, France

Abstract: The Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) large-scale deployment is a difficult parameterisation work and it requires automatic planning process with formal models. This paper proposes a solution to this matter and provides a model integrating all useful parameters to estimate the location and parameter settings of such network while optimising network costs and throughput. The access point location, the access point pattern, the antenna orientation, the emitted power and the antenna frequency channel are set in this model which brings together cell and frequency planning features (mix of Automatic Cell Planning (ACP) and Automatic Frequency Planning (AFP) problems). With the formal model description this paper illustrates step by step the process of WLAN planning from the AP location to the effective throughput computation. A fair example is given at each section to didactically emphasise the planning problem and the model we defined. At the end, the optimisation problem is to minimise the economical cost of deployment and the economical cost of throughput loss inside a unique and understandable objective function.

Keywords: optimisation model; WLAN planning; IEEE 802.11 WLAN; wireless networks; mobile networks; wireless LANs; local area networks; cell planning; frequency planning; access point location; access point pattern; antenna orientation; emitted power; antenna frequency channel; throughput loss; network costs; network design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMNDI.2007.013800

International Journal of Mobile Network Design and Innovation, 2007 Vol.2 No.1, pp.13 - 25

Published online: 28 May 2007 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article