Load balancing based accessing scheme for multi-hop WLAN

In recent years, Wireless Local Area Network has been widely deployed to provide Mobile Nodes (MNs) with high-speed Internet access. In this paper, we consider a multi-hop WLAN application scenario, where a MN is allowed to connect Access Point (AP) directly or through a Relay Station (RS) in a multi-hop mode. In the overlapped area of multiple APs/RSs, an optimal AP/RS should be chosen in order to guarantee user QoS and achieve system performance enhancement. Furthermore, in the case that the performance of serving AP degrades, MNs may perform handoff to another adjacent AP, so that better QoS can be achieved. In this paper, an access selection/handoff platform conducting information perception, processing, network accessing and user handoff is designed and both the AP/RS selection and handoff decision algorithm are proposed. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms offer better performance comparing to traditional algorithms.