A joint channel allocation and power control scheme for interference mitigation in high-density WLANs

Wi-Fi devices are popular because of low cost and easy deployment, which lead to high density of WLANs in urban areas. Due to high density, WLANs suffer performance degradation unless networks interfering with each other can allocate wireless resource reasonably. Hence, our goal is to minimize the interference caused by high density of WLANs and in turn it helps improve throughput. In this paper, a joint distributed algorithm is proposed to achieve the goal. Firstly, thirteen overlapping channels are allocated to APs based on principles that neighboring APs have large channel spacing. Secondly, the lowest power value that maintains communication is obtained through estimating locations of users. Then power is adjusted according to SINR ranging from the lowest power value to default power value. Simulation results demonstrate that our presented algorithm enhances performance greatly, in light of user throughput, interference and power, compared to the traditional regimes.