Deploying home access points (AP) is hard. Untrained users typically purchase, install, and configure a home AP with very little awareness of wireless signal coverage and complex interference conditions. We envision a future of autonomous wireless network management that uses the Internet as an enabling technology. By leveraging a P2P architecture over wired Internet connections, nearby APs can coordinate to manage their shared wireless spectrum, especially in the face of network-crippling faults. As a specific instance of this architecture, we build RxIP, a network diagnostic and recovery tool, initially targeted towards hidden terminal mitigation. Our stable, in-kernel implementation demonstrates that APs in real home settings can detect hidden interferers, and agree on a mutually beneficial channel access strategy. Consistent throughput and fairness gains with TCP traffic and in-home micro-mobility confirm the viability of the system. We believe that using RxIP to address other network deficiencies opens a rich area for further research, helping to ensure that smarter homes of the future embed smarter networks. In the near term, with the wireless and entertainment industries poised for home-centric wireless gadgets, RxIP-type home management systems will become increasingly relevant.
This paper explores the possibility of using the Internet as a control channel for residential wireless networks (RWLANs). We design and implement Telegram, an architecture in which nearby APs coordinate their wireless transmissions over the wired Internet. The latency of coordination is resolved by scheduling packets slightly in advance. Testbed experiments show consistent performance gains, not only due to reduced control traffic, but also due to TDMA-like scheduling in space and time. Motivated by early results, ongoing work is focused on developing a fully-functional system solution.
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