Attention to Wi-Fi Diversity: Resource Management in WLANs with Heterogeneous APs

Many home networks integrate a small number (typically 2-4) of Wi-Fi Access Points (APs), with heterogeneous characteristics: different 802.11 variants, capabilities and security schemes. This paper proposes the consideration of these specific characteristics in order to improve the management of network resources. Three use cases are presented in order to showcase the potential benefits. By the use of a user-space AP, which works in coordination with a controller, the network is able to assign each connected station to the AP that best fits with its characteristics. The system also manages security, avoiding the need of adding specific elements for authentication, encryption or decryption. Extensions are proposed to an existing protocol that defines the communication between the AP and the controller, in order to communicate and store the specific characteristics of each AP and end device. This includes new association and handoff schemes that do not introduce any additional delay. The system has been implemented in a real environment, and a battery of tests has been run using three hardware platforms of different characteristics. The results show that handoffs between bands are possible, and estimate the processing delays, the Round-Trip Time and the handoff delay, which is small enough in order not to produce any significant disruption to the user (10-50 ms). Finally, the scenarios of interest have been replicated in a simulation environment, showing that significant benefits can be achieved if the specific characteristics of each AP and station are considered

Evaluation of technological and socio-economic issues affecting the deployment of home networks: Evidence from the ICT-OMEGA project

Home networks (HNs) are rapidly becoming the next battlefield for various telecom carriers and companies. The European project ICT-OMEGA seeks to enable the convergence of the diverse wireless and wireline technologies at the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. In such a world of converging, heterogeneous HN technologies, system designers needs to take into account several technical, economic and social aspects that will effect the development and the rate of adoption of HNs by the general public. Careful roadmapping is required to ensure a smooth transition from existing to the next generation HN systems. The objective of this paper is to provide an evaluation of the key technological and socio-economic issues, which may affect the deployment of HNs. Within the OMEGA project, such issues are addressed using surveys conducted by the project experts, designed based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). In this paper, the results of the surveys, conducted using pairwise comparison (which is an important ingredient of AHP) are presented. Several critical aspects are identified and their importance is weighted. The conclusions drawn are important for the overall roadmapping effort of future HN technologies. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC