Tkn Technical Reports Series

IEEE 802.11 based WLANs are becoming increasingly widely deployed. Although network planning helps in solving some problems in WLANs, still exist many issues that stem from the static behavior of WLAN’s networking elements required to be solved. More effort is needed toward a dynamic reconfigurable WLAN that adapts its parameters according to the dynamical changes in the RF environment and traffic load characteristics. A promising solution for many problems exist in todays WLANs is the Inter-AP coordination, whereby APs exchange some information that could intelligently be used to alter transmission parameters. In spite of the fact that the Inter-Access Point Protocol (IAPP) implies some coordination among APs, this protocol just aims at supporting user’s mobility among APs. Hence, new Inter-AP Coordination protocols that enables manufactureres and policy designers to develop algorithms that improve and optimize the usage of the WLANs Radio Resources are required. This report presents some Inter-AP coordination protocols toward dynamic, intelligent and optimized WLANs. The report proposes and discusses three coordination protocols that would support three important services, namely are: Dynamic Channel Switching, Capacity Sharing, and Dynamic Adjustment of Transmission Power.