My other thoughts: if he is using 8 channels instead of the standard 3 (1,6,11) then there will be some overlap; 80211 devices tends to better handle in-channel interference. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels
I would suggest that it should become part of our condo fees / building management, but I have little confidence in our board.
One question I have is how this would perform in an incredibly congested area like an apartment building. The author only modeled out 2-way conflict; I have no idea how this algorithm would react if placed in a situation with 15 competing Wi-Fi access points.
Overall a good, nerdy read - this is the kind of shit I keep coming to HN for.
You are actually right, similar ideas have already been proposed before. The main novelty here is that the algorithm adapts not only the channel (center frequency), but also the bandwidth (i.e., the actual amount of spectrum that is consumed).
Adapting the bandwidth gives a precious additional degree of freedom; in particular, in a case with many competing WLANs, the algorithm would typically tend to reduce the bandwidth consumed by each WLAN (assuming the interfering WLANs are not idle and actually sending traffic). Reducing the bandwidth potentially reduces the available capacity (if you were alone), but it's still much more efficient than letting Wi-Fi use the time domain to avoid interference, so it results in increased throughput compared to current situations.
It turns out that adapting the bandwidth is becoming a necessity, because newer versions of Wi-Fi consume more and more bandwidth. This is better if you are alone, but may be harmful if you have many neighbors.
Wouldn't that use more battery, since for a narrower channel the radio would have to be kept on for longer to transmit (or receive) the same amount of data?
First, what do you think of the b/g/n wireless structure? If you could redesign it from the ground up what would you change to maximize performance (given the same bandwidth)?
Second: would allowing routers to communicate improve your solution significantly?
Thanks, great work btw
Also, kudos for the idea. This is a much needed feature in today's crowded condos.
And on at least one SoC I worked with (Realtek) I swear the algorithm was "return 6".
I don't, I live in a city, in an apartment building, surrounded by apartment buildings. I can frequently see 30+ networks. I'm sure there are wireless phones and other devices crowding the spectrum as well. Give me more channels, or better ways to share spectrum, anything other than dividing the number of usable channels with every update.
It might use 2x the bandwidth, but it will use it for half the time for the same amount of data, so it all evens out (almost; there's an unused "border" between channels, so 2x the bandwidth is a bit more than 2x faster, and it will use a bit less than half the time).
And the 802.11ac standard has a way to better share the wide channels and the narrow channels; see the "Dynamic Bandwidth Operation" chapter of the "802.11ac: A Survival Guide" book at http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000001739/ch03.htm...
