Joint Power and Rate Control in User space for Freifunk OpenWrt Mesh & Access Networks

The IEEE 802.11 specification for Wireless Local Area Networking (WLAN) has been widely deployed worldwide due to its low cost and convenience in providing internet access. As such, the performance of WiFi networks is far from optimal, especially when multiple participants share the same channel in an uncoordinated manner. Hence, resource allocation in wireless transmission plays a vital role in optimizing the throughput of a link. The aim of this project is to implement a joint power and rate controller in user space using the Rateman Python package. As a rate control algorithm in user space has already been developed at SupraCoNeX, namely "py_minstrel_ht", this variant of Minstrel-HT can be extended with power tuning capability to better manage interference and increase spatial reuse. In general, the proposed joint controller will consist of a power tuning module that tweaks the power level of the set of best rates, selected by the Minstrel-HT, to an optimal value. Furthermore, the joint controller could also be extended to support modes such as fixed power and low power.