Multiple Access Point Coordinated Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access Considering Channel Fairness of Non-Coordinated Nodes

In the context of a network with multiple access points (APs) utilizing coordinated orthogonal frequency division multiple access (C-OFDMA), a channel unfairness among APs arises when the APs participating in the coordination decrease the available channels accessible to non-coordinated nodes. This study introduces a solution in the form of C-OFDMA, in which coordinated sides prioritize channels that may not be used by the non-coordinated sides for resource allocation to STAs that are overlapped within the range of the non-coordinated sides. Consequently, conflicts between non-coordinated and coordinated APs are minimized and non-coordinated nodes cannot have their number of available channels decreased through carrier sense. This enhances channel fairness among all APs, thus facilitates the effective implementation of C-OFDMA. Moreover it maintains system throughput in C-OFDMA without RU reuse. Based on simulations, in systems where non-coordinated and coordinated nodes are in close proximity, the proposed method enhances these throughput and fairness compared with conventional C-OFDMA approaches. This allows C-OFDMA to be efficiently utilized even in dense wireless local area networks, which are increasing in popularity.