Channel allocation system for wireless video communication in 802.11n MESH networks

Abstract

With the latest technological achievements, wireless communication is spreading all around the world and entering into the daily life of individuals more. Especially with the development of 802.11n standard, high data rate communication is becoming available, which is beneficial for multimedia applications like real-time video communi- cation. However, increased number of wireless communication users occupy the limited channel spectrum and prevent other users from accessing the channel as they desire. This issue requires proper channel allocation for access points (AP) essential. This thesis presents a complete solution for an effective channel allocation system in order to minimize the channel usage experienced by the APs. Our objective is to realize video communication for a mesh of access points operating on the same frequency. Therefore, minimizing channel switchings is very important in order not to interrupt the video communication frequently. The main steps of the proposed solution include measurement collection and processing techniques, channel switching decision and determining the optimal channel. Our proposed adaptive measurement processing method using Kalman and Median Filters can estimate channel usages accurately for both high-variance and low-variance data. By using multiple thresholding mechanisms, the proposed channel allocation algorithm not only minimizes the number of interfering APs, but it also strives to avoid unnecessary switching of the operating channel.