Multi-channel access in wireless networks using interference-aware channel segregation based dynamic channel assignment

Abstract

The co-channel interference (CCI) limits the capacity of wireless networks due to the limited number of available channels and the fact that the same channel must be reused in the system. Recently, we proposed the interference-aware channel segregation based dynamic channel assignment (IACS-DCA). Stable channel reuse pattern can be formed in a distributed manner which can minimize the CCI experienced at access points (APs) or base stations (BSs). In this paper, we introduce a multi-channel access technique for the IACS-DCA. Each AP has channel priority table, in which the channels are listed by the ascending order of average CCI power. Original IACS-DCA assumes the single channel access using the first priority channel with the lowest average CCI power. By using multiple channels at the same time in the descending priority order, more number of users can access an AP. However, the use of channels below the first orders at the same time increases the CCI and may make the channel reuse pattern unstable. We examine, by computer simulation, the channel reuse pattern and confirm that the IACS-DCA improves the signal-to-interference power ratio (SIR) even with multi-channel access compared to the conventional quasi-DCA using multi-channel access.