Wireless Proxy: Distributed System to Mitigate the Effects of User Mobility Over Streaming Services on IEEE 802.11 Wireless LANs

Abstract

This article introduces a distributed system, called wireless proxy, to mitigate the effects of user mobility over streaming services on IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs (WLANs). It argues that a handoff procedure totally controlled by the client, depending on client mobility and configuration, can have negative effects over streaming services. In this way, mobile clients that remain associated with their current access point (AP) in poor channel conditions, severely affect the performance of streaming services. The presented distributed system monitors client mobility and induces mobile client handoffs when channel conditions worsen. Also, the system compensates streaming client and server underestimations of channel conditions. The obtained improvements using wireless proxy are experimentally tested using one of the most extended commercial streaming platforms and off-the-shelf WiFi devices. The main contribution of the developed system is that it works with unmodified IEEE 802.11 wireless NICs and APs, such as the ones widely deployed nowadays.