Radio resource management based on radio environmental maps: Case of Smart-WiFi

The significant penetration of the WiFi technology in the last decade and the lack of solutions for coordinated and efficient interference management between WiFi networks in unlicensed bands often lead to poor spectrum utilization and network performances. The synergy between Radio Environmental Maps (REMs) and Radio Resource Management (RRM) can offer a viable solution for so called Smart-WiFi that significantly improves the ISM spectrum utilization and the overall WiFi performances. REMs enable efficient usage of environmental data sets, such as WiFi device locations, estimated pathloss models, real-time interference levels, statistical channels occupancies etc. for an intelligent RRM in WiFi related scenarios. This paper proposes a novel RRM approach for WiFi coordination and optimization that exploits the available REM information. The paper also showcases the proposed approach on a real prototype, performing real-time REM data acquisition/ processing and enhanced WiFi coordination and optimization.