Channel management in a campus-wide WLAN with partially overlapping channels

The 2.4 GHz ISM band is a battlefield where an increasingly large number of devices compete for the scarce frequency resources. IEEE 802.11 WLANs suffer the consequences of this overcrowded spectrum, especially in dense scenarios where the performance of those WLAN cells is way below the expected in ideal conditions. The harmful effects of interference can be minimized if an intelligent frequency management is implemented. In this paper, we first detail the implementation of a dynamic channel assignment solution which considers partially overlapping channels, and then we show, through measurements in a real campus-wide scenario with near 200 APs and under real traffic conditions, how this approach improves the performance of the traditional three orthogonal channels (i.e. 1, 6 and 11).