On the Stability of an Un-Coordinated Solution for Channel Allocation in Dense Wireless Networks

Abstract

The popularity of IEEE 802.11 wireless networks, its simplicity of deployment and affordability has leaded to the existence of high density networks with many APs, owned and configured by the same or different providers, covering the same physical space and potentially interfering with each other. The interference caused by the co-channel and adjacent channel interference driven by co-located devices is one of the main issues to address to improve network performance. It is natural to think of solving this problem letting the APs to sense the medium and change the working radio channel accordingly to reduce interference. However, if this approach is used in an uncoordinated manner can cause to an unstable network re-configuration process. This paper briefly presents an un-coordinated solution to optimize channel configuration between participating Access Points and shows how the channel configuration oscillates. Then, we study the problem from a control-theoretical point of view and provide a feedback control-based solution to bound the oscillations of the solution. Finally, we present a simulation-based evaluation that shows how the proposed mechanism behaves.