Title: Measurement-based methods for channel selection in 802.11 WLANs

Authors: Murad Abusubaih

Addresses: Department of Electrical Engineering, Palestine Polytechnic University, Hebron, Palestine

Abstract: IEEE 802.11-based WLANs are becoming the dominant access technology for enterprises, homes, and hot spots. Standardisation bodies have recently released the so-called 5G 802.11ac technology. This paper addresses the channel selection problem in 802.11 networks. We first propose a new hybrid metric for interference measurement and characterisation. The new metric combines power and channel occupancy time. Then, we develop algorithms for dynamic channel selection based on the proposed metric. The proposed algorithms assign channels to access points (APs) in a way that minimises interference among interfering cells. We present results of a real case study that demonstrate the merit of the proposed algorithms to effectively reduce interference effect and improve network performance.

Keywords: WLANs; wireless LANs; local area networks; IEEE 802.11 networks; channel selection; interference mitigation; interference measurement; channel occupancy time; network performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWMC.2016.078209

International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing, 2016 Vol.10 No.4, pp.386 - 392

Received: 19 Nov 2015
Accepted: 13 Apr 2016
Published online: 08 Aug 2016 *

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