Power Saving Access Points for Wireless Network Infrastructure

Based on my literature review from a few IEEE paper (journals and conferences), I found out in the past decade, there has been a huge proliferation of wireless local area networks (WLANs) based on the IEEE 802.11 WLAN standard. As predicted last 10 years ago, the 802.11 connectivity will become more ubiquitous. In fact, recent development of 802.11n draft 3.0 standard shows the capability of many ubiquitous applications can realized soon. One of applications that can be offered is a free wifi call (VoIP) for local usage within campuses or coperate organization. These application requires a reliable multihop roaming from one access point to its neighborhood access point. As the multihop communications will be increasingly used for access point range extension and coverage enhancement. The design for IEEE 802.11-based power saving access point (PSAP) become important hardware features, in order to support roaming application. The access point probably intended for use in multihop battery and solar/battery powered applications.

These types of APs have many practical applications and can be deployed very quickly and inexpensively to provide both outdoor and indoor coverage enhancement in situations such as campuses, building complexes, and fast deployment scenarios. Unlike conventional wired access points, in this type of system, power saving on the AP itself is an important features. A key design constraint is that the proposed PSAP must able to support backward compatible to a wide class of IEEE 802.11 functionality and existing wired access points.