Enhanced Channel Assignment and Load Distribution in IEEE 802.11 WLANs

An algorithm to reduce congestion and balance users´ load in IEEE 802.11b/g Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) is presented, which takes into account overlapping channel interference between Access Points (APs) and the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) experienced by the users. After finding the best channel assignment at the APs, the algorithm then finds the Most Congested Access Point (MCAP). It reexamines the users´ association with APs by minimizing the congestion at the MCAP. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is capable of significantly reducing the overall congestion in the WLAN while mitigating channel interference. Our algorithm has also been shown to be scalable and it performs well for networks of different topologies.