Service-oriented Wifi connectivity maintenance with a mobile AP

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/SAI.2016.7556098

We consider the problem of providing continuous wireless connectivity to mobile Wi-Fi users via a mobile access point (MAP). In traditional infrastructure Wi-Fi networks, mobile users may experience poor or no connectivity when they are away from an access point (AP) and/or there is an interfering obstacle in between. The connectivity is affected by the factors such as type of data traffic (like interactive, responsive, timely, and non-critical) or ambient conditions e.g., interference and distraction/refraction due to obstacles. In proposed approach, the quality of the connection is measured by the value of received signal strength (RSSI). If RSSI at a client is lower than a pre-specified threshold, a MAP acts as a relay node, and forwards the traffic from the AP to mobile clients instead of direct communication. MAP dynamically relocates in order to satisfy a service oriented level of connection quality. In our approach, the routing is performed at the MAC layer, so the network layer is unaware of the change in routing path. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach provides continuous connectivity to the clients at the cost of a low end-to-end average delay.