DISTRIBUTED CHANNEL SELECTION FOR WIRELESS NETWORKS

摘要

Wireless networking devices scan for available channels and gather data about the channels and the RF environment. Using this information, each wireless networking device determines a cost value for each available channel and a quality value for its overall RF neighborhood. Each wireless networking device select the channel with the best cost value as a candidate channel for use. The wireless networking devices may submit channel requests to the arbiter for approval. If two or more wireless networking devices are requesting the same channel, the arbiter assigns the channel to the wireless networking device with the worst RF neighborhood quality. The arbiter informs the wireless networking devices if their channel requests are approved. If a wireless networking device's channel request is not approved, the wireless networking device will rescan the remaining available channels to select a different candidate channel to be approved.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
identifying, by a wireless networking device, channel data of available wireless network channels; identifying, by the wireless networking device, neighboring wireless networking devices; determining a quality of the neighboring wireless networking devices; determining cost values for the available wireless network channels based on a cost function of at least one attribute of the available wireless network channels from the channel data; selecting a candidate wireless network channel of the available wireless network channels based on the cost values for the available wireless network channels; determining, by the wireless networking device, if at least one of the neighboring wireless networking devices is acting as an arbiter network device; if it is determined that at least one of the neighboring wireless networking devices is acting as the arbiter networking device:
sending a channel request to use the candidate wireless network channel to the arbiter networking device;using the candidate wireless network channel to transmit data if channel approval is received from the arbiter networking device.