CADWAN: A Control Architecture for Dense WiFi Access Networks

The growing demands of ubiquitous computing are leading to the densification of wireless access networks. The challenges of high density deployments can be addressed by network-wide centralized control. To this end, we propose CADWAN, a Control Architecture for efficient management of Dense WiFi Access Networks. Its main advantages are: flexibility (it supports software-defined wireless networking), scalability (it uses a three-tier optimization framework), and extendibility (it exploits a unified control interface with support for heterogeneous devices). Furthermore, CADWAN is complementary to ongoing developments in IEEE 802.11, especially 802.11ax.