Implementation of Round-Robin load balancing scheme in a wireless software defined network

Abstract

Wireless campus networks concentrate most of the traffic generated by the users and their applications. Such networks deal with mobility, large number of users, and infrastructure issues like unplanned routers deployment. However, the network management is difficult in such cases and may distribute the traffic unevenly between access points (APs). Load balancing the traffic between the APs improves the QoS perceived by users, and the network performance during periods of congestion. The available solutions are non-standard and present lack of interoperability. These problems motivate the implementation of flexible load balancing schemes, in a scalable and centralized network architecture like SDN (Software Defined Networks). SDN centralize the network administration enabling control applications. This paper presents the implementation of a load balancing application based on Round Robin, in a prototype of an institutional wireless network. The experiments test the algorithm performance for single AP, developed in POX, and its extension to multiples APs including a seamless handoff process, using 5G-Empower. The proposed implementations show throughput improvements compared to traditional scenarios.