Bandwidth Sharing Control Unit for Mobile Client Access Point Assignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless data offload systems in public transportation vehicles face challenges in efficiently sharing bandwidth among multiple mobile clients and access points, leading to uneven utilization and reduced performance due to clients connecting to the strongest signal, resulting in poor data transfer rates, especially when vehicles are in motion.
Innovation Solution
A method where a control unit determines the initial allocation of mobile clients to access points and reassigns them as necessary to balance bandwidth usage, using client information such as access point identifiers and signal quality data to optimize access point assignment, ensuring more even bandwidth distribution among access points.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If clients connect to the access point with the strongest signal, then connection reliability is improved, but bandwidth utilization becomes uneven and performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The control unit performs preliminary analysis of client information and access point capabilities before clients establish connections. It proactively determines optimal access point assignments and signals re-location instructions to clients before they connect, preventing the congestion problem from occurring in the first place rather than reacting to it after connections are established
Solution Approach 2:
A control unit is introduced as an intermediary between mobile clients and access points. This intermediary receives client information from access points, analyzes the data, determines optimal assignments, and signals re-location instructions to clients. The control unit mediates the interaction to achieve balanced bandwidth utilization while maintaining connection reliability
2Ease of operation
If multiple clients connect to the same access point, then connection simplicity is improved, but data transfer rate decreases due to bandwidth sharing
Solution Approach 1:
The control unit acts as an intermediary that automatically manages client-to-access-point assignments. Clients simply follow re-location signals from the control unit without needing to manually select access points or understand bandwidth distribution, maintaining ease of operation while achieving balanced load distribution across multiple access points
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by having the control unit receive client information from access points, analyze current connection status and bandwidth utilization, and signal re-location instructions to clients. This closed-loop feedback mechanism dynamically adjusts assignments to maintain optimal data transfer rates while keeping the process transparent to clients
3Area of stationary object
If access points are distributed along the vehicle route, then coverage area is improved, but bandwidth sharing efficiency deteriorates due to uneven client distribution
Solution Approach 1:
The control unit serves as a central intermediary that receives information from all distributed access points along the vehicle route, analyzes the collective client distribution across the entire coverage area, and coordinates re-location signals to achieve balanced bandwidth sharing across all access points regardless of their physical distribution
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies local quality by allowing each access point to serve clients based on local conditions (signal strength, current load) while the control unit coordinates overall distribution. Each access point maintains its local optimization for coverage while the control unit ensures global optimization for bandwidth sharing efficiency across the distributed network
Data Source
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AI summary
A method and related apparatus for sharing bandwidth in communication between a plurality of mobile clients and a plurality of access points, the method comprising: receiving client information from the plurality of mobile clients; determining that each of the plurality of mobile clients has been connected to an access point; determining if any access point has a subgroup of multiple mobile clients connected to it; and if affirmative, determining, on the basis of the client information, possible access points for each mobile client in said subgroup; assigning, for a first mobile client residing outermost in said subgroup, the outermost possible access point in the corresponding direction; assigning, for any subsequent mobile client in said subgroup, the outermost possible, non-assigned access point in the same direction as for the first mobile client; and signalling, to any mobile client requiring re-location to another access point, the identification of the assigned access point.