User Association in Software-Defined Wi-Fi Networks for Enhanced Resource Allocation

Although 4G and 5G Radio Access Technologies(RATs) aim to usher in faster connectivity that is able to cope with mobile traffic demands, this capability is sometimes hindered by poor indoor signal quality caused by distance from base stations and the materials used in the construction of buildings. These factors have led to Wi-Fi being adopted as the technology of choice in indoor scenarios. Although the deployment of Wi-Fi Access Points (APs) can be planned, the user-AP association procedure is not defined by the standard but left to the vendor’s choice, which for simplicity is usually driven by signal strength. This approach leads to uneven user distributions and poor resource utilization. To overcome this rigidity, in this paper, we leverage SoftwareDefined Networking (SDN) to propose ajoint user association and channel assignment solution in Wi-Fi networks. Our approach considers average signal strength, channel occupancy, and AP load to make better user association decisions. Experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed solution improves the aggregated goodput by 22% with respect to approaches based on signal strength. Furthermore, user level fairness is also improved.