The Open Cybernetics & Systemics Journal

2015, 9 : 1281-1288
Published online 2015 September 14. DOI: 10.2174/1874110X01509011281
Publisher ID: TOCSJ-9-1281

Research on the Virtual Access Points in the Wireless Local Area Network

Min Chen , Zejun Li and Ang Li
School of Computer Science and Technology, Hunan Institute of Technology, Hengyang, China.

ABSTRACT

The management of the access points in the establishment of the current wireless local area network is independent and scattered. The builder must log into the access points with the artificial method to set the identification, the operating channel and the authentication code. The client stations have to scan each channel for finding out the pre-set identification and then cooperating the process of the authentication for the access network. These processes may take several seconds and greatly degrade the Internet experience, especially for the users who frequently move among different coverage of access points. Additionally, if users desire high throughput and ubiquitous network accessed by distributing high-density access points, the performance of whole network does not grow as expected due to the ill management of independent access points. In this paper, we extend the software-defined network (SDN) into the access network so that access points are managed by a central controller to deal with the issues, such as load balance, interference of channel allocation and handover. After the users can register an account and select the configuration for the server in advance, the configuration of the group can be directly adopted to enter the network. The server can create its special virtual access points in the neighboring access points, and then directly provide the service of the client side. When the client side moves, the virtual access points will move into other tangible access points with the moving of the client sides. As to the client sides, it has the same access points connection without observing whether the procedure of changing the hand exists.

Keywords:

Software-defined network (SDN), virtual access points (VAP), wireless local area network (WLAN).