Research on Neighboring APs Discovery Methods in PnP WLAN

To overcome the disadvantage in traditional manual configuration method for WLANs, such as the high configuration and maintenance cost and low efficiency of system performance, we propose the plug-and-play (PnP) of multi-mode APs that APs auto-configure themselves based on the network environment. In order to implement the PnP, the Multi-mode AP must obtain its neighboring APs' configuration and environment information. Existing neighboring APs discovery method can not provide the precise neighboring APs information to satisfy the requirement of PnP of AP. In this paper, we propose three kinds of neighboring AP discovery and information exchange methods, which are passive discovery method, active discovery method and station assistant discovery method. Using these three neighboring AP discovery methods, AP can discover all neighboring APs and obtain needed information. We further propose two whole process flows, which combine three discovery methods in different manner, to achieve different goal. One process flow is to discover the neighboring AP as fast as possible, called fast discovery process flow. Another one is to discover the neighboring AP with minimal interference to neighboring APs, called the minimal interference process flow. The efficiency of the two process flows is shown in the simulation results.