CIAS: An Application-Defined Multi-Connectivity Scheduler for Time-Sensitive Wi-Fi Systems

Modern Wi-Fi systems are facing increasing demands due to the rise of advanced industrial real-time applications. These applications require Wi-Fi networks to deliver low latency and high reliability. Current Wi-Fi solutions often struggle to meet these stringent performance requirements. Multi-Connectivity (MC) presents a promising approach to address these challenges by using multiple communication paths to enhance the overall network performance. In this paper, we propose the Channel Capacity Index-Aware Adaptive Scheduler (CIAS), a novel application-defined MC scheduler for wireless communication systems, and examine the performance of static, dynamic, and adaptive MC scheduling schemes under various network conditions. In the baseline scenario, CIAS significantly reduces one-way latency in medium to high load by dynamically selecting the best scheduling strategy based on the Channel Capacity Index (CCI). Overall, the study underscores the importance of adaptive MC scheduling for time-sensitive applications and highlights the potential of CIAS to improve scheduling efficiency under varying load conditions.