Power-Saving Control for Wireless LAN Stations utilizing Multiple BSSID

抄録

With the growth of wireless LANs, the number of wireless LAN stations (STAs) associated with an access point (AP) is increasing. For STAs in the power-saving mode (PS mode), an AP advertises the buffering status of data frames for each STA by means of a beacon, then each STA requests the transmission of buffered frames. If two or more STAs request data frame transmission, they may not receive data frames immediately because there might be a waiting time due to other STAs' transmissions. Power is consumed by this waiting time because the STAs are in the awake state. To reduce this power consumption, we propose a traffic distribution method, utilizing a multiple basic service set identification (BSSID). The primary problem with the conventional method is that traffic is congested only after beacon transmission, thus, traffic must be distributed. Usually, the multiple BSSID is used for virtual networks, i.e., virtual access points (APs). Using virtual APs built by multiple BSSID in the proposed method, the AP controls the association of virtual APs and STAs. By distributing the number of STAs associated with virtual APs, the waiting time due to other STAs' transmissions is reduced. Simulation results reveal that the proposed method reduces power consumed by STAs by means of multiple BSSID.