Interference-aware decentralized access point selection policy for multi-rate IEEE 802.11 Wireless LANs

Abstract

This paper proposes a new decentralized Access Point Selection Policy for 802.11 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). We derive a decision metric towards AP selection improvement. The derived metric comprises both Inter-BSS and Intra-BSS interference. Our proposed policy is decentralized in the sense that the decision is performed by each station. The core of the policy is based on measurement reports standarized in the IEEE 802.11 k standard. The main question we would like to address is: To what extent can the impact of interference be reduced at the selection phase? The performance of the proposed policy is evaluated through detailed simulation experiments. We identify the scenarios where the proposed policy is likely to provide great gain, and scenarios where the gain is minimal.