An iterative heuristic approach for channel and power allocation in wireless networks

Abstract

A large number of access points (APs) may be required to provide network coverage in a given environment. However, a non-optimized deployment of these APs can reduce the network performance significantly due to the excessive interference. The optimization of the channel and transmit power is an efficient method to reduce the interference and therefore guarantee a minimally acceptable performance. In this paper, we propose a heuristic algorithm to find a proper channel and transmit power configuration for all APs within a network. The algorithm evaluates the network, using theoretical models, and employs several techniques to optimize the channel and the transmit power to increase the network performance. We also estimate the complexity of the proposed algorithm comparing it with an exhaustive search approach. The results show that the proposed algorithm can arrive at a solution very close to the optimal with a much reduced computational complexity.