Building a SDN Enterprise WLAN Based on Virtual APs

TL;DR

This paper presents an open enterprise Wi-Fi solution using virtual APs managed by a central controller, enabling seamless handovers and addressing scalability issues, with real-world testing demonstrating improved QoS for real-time services.

Contribution

It introduces a virtual AP-based Wi-Fi architecture for enterprise environments with centralized management and addresses scalability challenges.

Findings

Seamless handovers between APs are achieved.

Scalability issues related to beaconing and channel assignment are addressed.

Real-world tests show improved packet loss and delay metrics.

Abstract

In this letter the development and testing of an open enterprise Wi-Fi solution based on virtual APs, managed by a central WLAN controller is presented. It allows seamless handovers between APs in different channels, maintaining the QoS of real-time services. The potential scalability issues associated to the beacon generation and channel assignment have been addressed. A battery of tests has been run in a real environment, and the results are reported in terms of packet loss and delay.