Dynamic multi-band allocation scheme for a stand-alone wireless access point

The most popular wireless LAN standards; IEEE802.11b [1] and IEEE802.11g [2] operates using the 2.4 GHz band. There are only three non-overlapping channels that can be used without interference for wireless LANs. Therefore, congestion is very high especially with the increasing use of similar and other wireless technologies in this band. The IEEE802.11n [3] standard operates using both the 2.4GHz and the less congested 5GHz frequency band. Some of the deficiencies of using the 5GHz are penetration issues and coverage area. In this paper, we propose a multi-band scheme that is capable of dynamically switches between the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz frequency bands based on the operating environment. The metric we use in the switching operation is the Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI). We validate our work by real implementations and experiments. The scheme is built on the open source TomatoUSB [4] firmware.