Improved Measurement-Based Frequency Allocation Algorithms for Wireless Networks

This paper presents three algorithms that outperform all other published work for allocating a limited number of orthogonal frequency channels to access points (APs) in wireless networks. Unlike other work, we minimize interference seen by both users and APs, we use a physical rather than binary model for interference, and we mitigate the impact of rogue RF interference. Our three algorithms have different mechanisms of switching the channels of APs based on the in- situ interference measured at clients and/or APs. The convergence of the algorithms is proven and characterized. Our algorithms consistently yield high throughput gains irrespective of network topology, the level of AP activity, and the number of controlled APs, rogue interferers, and available channels. We outperform the best published work by 15% and 18% for mean and median user throughputs respectively, and 81%, 168%, and 1011% for 25, 20, and 15 percentiles of user throughputs, respectively.