Title: A better
deployment of 802.11 wireless access points
Master RSD
Summary
Nowadays, WIFI 802.11 wireless networks [1] are
becoming popular way to access the Internet. WIFI access points can be found in
many places such as airports, universities, restaurants, etc. Moreover, many
people deploy access points to provide wireless connectivity at their own
places. A wireless access point can cover an area on the order of hundreds of
meters square and provide people within this area with a bandwidth on the order
of tens of Mbytes if one uses the new 802.11g standard. More than one access
point can be deployed to cover larger areas.
The performance obtained
by users of WIFI networks is known to be function of many parameters as the
number of hosts connected to the access point, the noise on the air, and the
tuning of the MAC layer [2]. In a recent work [3], we found that this
performance is also function of the spatial distribution of hosts around the
access point (AP). An analytical model has been proposed to this end. Our model
[3] shows that hosts close to the access point can get much higher throughput
compared to remote hosts. The total throughput of the network also changes with
the distribution of hosts. So, one can conclude that for some distribution of hosts
in some area, there should be an optimal placement of the access point that
provides the maximum total throughput and the best fairness to connected users.
The purpose of this
internship is to seek this optimal placement of the one or more access points
to deploy. First, the student will make a state of the art of past studies done
and techniques elaborated to optimize placement of APs.
Then, based on the proposed model in [3], an optimization problem has to be
developed and solved with standard tools. The challenge is in the localisation
of the search region since many optimal solutions could exist. Another
challenge is in the definition of a function that balances throughput and
fairness. The solution will be validated with simulations.
If time left, the
internship will continue into the development of a heuristic that takes into
account the specificities of the problem while finding the solution. The
heuristic will be implemented in an application that shows graphically how the
optimized placement has to be done.
Advisors
Chadi Barakat
Chargé de recherche
Planète research group, INRIA
Email: Chadi.Barakat(at)sophia.inria.fr
Web: http://www.inria.fr/planete/chadi
Thierry Turletti
Chargé de recherche
Planète research group, INRIA
Email: Thierry.Turletti(at)sophia.inria.fr
Web: http://www.inria.fr/planete/turletti
Laboratory
Planète research group
INRIA Sophia Antipolis
2004, route des lucioles
06902 Sophia Antipolis
Prerequis
General Knowledge of wireless protocols and
optimization tools.
References
[1] IEEE 802.11 WG, part
11a/11b/11g , “Wireless LAN Medium Access
Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) specifications,”, Standard
Specification, IEEE, 1999.
[2] Giuseppe Bianchi,
“Performance Analysis of the IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination
Function”, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Vol. 18,
Number 3, March 2000.
[3]