A Network-Assisted Association Scheme for 802.11-Based Mesh Networks

Wireless mesh networks provide a flexible yet cost- effective means to expand wireless coverage, but their performance can be limited without carefully managing station-to-AP associations to minimize the total end-to-end resource impact. The received signal strength-based approach that is commonly used by 802.11 devices can lead to inefficient use of network resources in a mesh network. In this paper we propose a network-assisted association scheme for 802.11-based mesh networks that provides guidance without exposing stations to the details of the network. We show via simulation that our approach produces improved performance as compared to the RSS-based approach and conclude that our scheme can yield higher system capacity in 802.11-based wireless mesh networks.