IEEE 802.11 WLAN Load Balancing for Network Performance Enhancement

IEEE 802.11 WLAN technology provides access of internet applications like HTTP, FTP, Video and others to its static and mobile users. In WLAN a station is enabled to take the services of internet only after its association with an access point (AP). A station can select an AP with the higher signal strength from among access points (APs). In real time scenario of IEEE 802.11 WLAN the mobile stations dynamically changes their locations which leads the unbalanced load distribution on available access points (APs). This load imbalance leads to considerable degradation in the performance of WLAN. In this paper we proposed a load balancing algorithm to enhance the network performance. Our algorithm will dynamically balance the network load by distributing the mobile stations among access points (APs). We use the Riverbed Modeler 17.5 Simulator to show the results of our proposed load balancing algorithm. Simulation results show the network performance enhancement in terms of Data Dropped, Throughput and Load on an AP. The proposed algorithm shows effectiveness of the load distribution and enhances the network performance.