SNMP-Based Approach to Load Distribution in IEEE 802.11 Networks

In an IEEE 802.11 network, the traffic load collectively given by wireless stations (WSs) is usually not fairly shared by all available access points (APs), as WSs independently select APs to camp on. Prior approaches toward this problem either need to modify AP's behavior or require bandwidth negotiation and agreement enforcement between APs and WSs. These approaches are not practical due to their inability to apply to APs already in use. This paper proposes an application-layer approach, where a dedicated server is deployed to collects load-related information from APs utilizing SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). Our approach applies to off-the-shelf APs and has been proven very effective through thoughtful experiments.