Blockage Robustness in Access Point Association for mmWave Wireless LANs with Mobility

Millimeter-wave wireless LANs are targeted for use with bandwidth-intensive applications such as virtual/augmented reality and real-time high-definition video. To maintain high throughput while addressing mmWave signal blockages, multiple access points (APs) within one room to improve line-of-sight conditions is considered a promising approach. In a scenario with fixed and mobile (human) obstacles, we mathematically analyze LoS blockages produced by mobility, and use the analysis to develop a multi-AP association scheme. Our scheme statically assigns primary and backup APs in order to maximize blockage robustness and perform load balancing among APs. Simulation results show that: 1) our static approach can provide blockage tolerance close to that of an expensive dynamic probing approach while achieving higher throughput, 2) the use of client mobility patterns, if known, can improve our static approach even further, and 3) our approach achieves significantly better fairness and load balancing than existing approaches.