Modeling and Solving AP Location and Frequency Assignment for Maximizing Access Efficiency in Wi-Fi Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces an optimization framework for Wi-Fi network planning that jointly considers access point placement and frequency assignment to maximize network performance, specifically access efficiency.

Contribution

It presents a novel two-step modeling approach that estimates frequency availability impact during AP placement, with hyperbolic formulations and linearizations for improved optimization.

Findings

Effective AP placement and frequency assignment improve access efficiency.

The proposed formulations are applicable to real-world Wi-Fi network planning.

Sample results demonstrate the approach's potential for deployment optimization.

Abstract

In this paper, we present optimization approaches for Access Point (AP) location and frequency assignment, two major planning tasks in deploying Wi-Fi networks. Since APs are relatively cheap, the major concern is network performance. We consider a performance metric, referred to as access efficiency, that captures key aspects of how user devices share access to the wireless medium. We propose a two-step approach to deal with AP location and frequency assignment in maximizing access efficiency. A novelty of our modeling approach is to estimate, in the first step of AP location, the impact of expected frequency availability on frequency assignment. For each of the two steps we derive hyperbolic formulations and their linearizations, and we propose a promising enumerative formulation. Sample results are reported to show the applicability of the approach.