Efficient WiFi deployment algorithms based on realistic mobility characteristics

Abstract--Recent years have witnessed the emergence of numerous new Internet services for mobile users. Supporting mobile applications via public WiFi networks has received significant research attention due to the drastic increase of penetration rate of 802.11-based networks. Nevertheless, recent empirical studies showed that unplanned WiFi networks cannot provide satisfactory Quality of Service for interactive mobile applications due to intermittent network connectivity. In this paper, we exploit realistic mobility characteristics of users to deploy WiFi Access Points (APs) for continuous service for mobile users. We study two AP deployment problems that aim to maximize the continuous user coverage and to minimize the AP deployment cost, respectively. Both problems are formulated based on mobility graphs that capture the statistical mobility patterns of users. We prove that both problems are NP-hard. We develop several optimal and approximation algorithms with provable performance bo...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: MASS
• Authors: Tian Wang, Guoliang Xing, Minming Li, Weijia Jia
• Keywords: Communications, MASS 2010, Mobile Users, Mobility Graphs, WiFi Networks