Cognitive Radio-based Power Adjustment for Wi-Fi

In this paper the idea of using Cognitive Radio (CR) techniques to optimize the access point (AP) configuration for IEEE 802.11 WLAN was exploited. In particular, we address the issue of optimizing AP transmission power and channel allocation within the network. The aim is to optimize the overall network performance by adjusting the transmission power of the APs and minimizing the non-adjacent co-channel interference in an extended service set (ESS) area. The goal of CR is to use the heuristic approach in sharing the spectrum among the active nodes without degradation in the network performance. In order to have a successful data transmission among the active nodes, an efficient transmission power adjustment algorithm is needed. The algorithm considers the overall power distribution between an AP and another co-channel non-adjacent AP using CR techniques as well as control the switching to other APs to optimize the overall network performance.